Status: Deferred (left teaching) | Role: No longer in teaching

Leaving the Scheme doesn’t mean leaving your pension

Dave is 29 and has worked as a teacher for seven years. He recently left the Scheme due to a career change.

When he started teaching in 2015, he was automatically enrolled in the career average section. He has seven years’ pensionable service, and he knows that he can leave the pension that he’s built up in the Scheme until he decides to retire.

What can Dave do?

Dave should make sure that he’s registered for and can access My Pension Online. This will help him keep track of his teaching benefits once he has left teaching. He should also check his service and salary to make sure that these are correct, along with his personal details and death grant nomination.

He might want to read about whether he is eligible to transfer his pension out of the Scheme - which would need to be done within 12 months of joining his new scheme - and find out more about his new pension scheme to see if he is able to make the transfer (transfers to defined contribution schemes are not allowed under Scheme rules).

Dave should also check to see if he’s taken any previous added years and if there’s an outstanding balance as he may need to pay the outstanding amount or choose a refund on the contributions paid to date. He’ll need to do this quickly as, if he wants to pay the outstanding balance, this needs to be completed within two months of leaving teaching.

Do you sound like Dave? Here’s what you can do:

1. Register or log in to My Pension Online (MPO) to better understand the value of your benefits
2. Check your service and salary and make sure that any errors are corrected
3. Update personal details regularly
4. Understand the Scheme rules about transfers by reading the transfer FAQs
5. Contact us if you’ve previous added years and decide to pay any outstanding balances