You must have two years’ service completed after 5 April 1988 or five years pensionable service completed at any time to be able to receive benefits from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. Your service may just be in the final salary scheme or career average scheme or a combination of both. For example if you’ve completed six months in final salary and then a further 18 months in career average, you will qualify for benefits. If you've transferred in from another scheme, this may mean you qualify for benefits.
Your Normal Pension Age (NPA) depends on which scheme your benefits are in in.
Your NPA for your career average benefits is either your State Pension age or age 65 whichever is the later date.
Your NPA for your final salary is 60 or 65 depending on when you entered pensionable service.
If you were in service before 1 January 2007 your final salary NPA is 60 provided you’ve not:
If you entered pensionable service on or after 1 January 2007 or after a break your final salary NPA will be 65.
If you’ve benefits in both final salary and career average, your final salary benefits are protected and will remain in final salary. When you retire we’ll use your salaries earned in career average to calculate your final salary benefits. This is called the final salary link. If you’ve a break in pensionable service of more than five years, the salary link is broken and we’ll use the salaries at the time of the break to calculate your final salary benefits.
Learn more about Career Average.
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