Following a recent claim brought against the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, the Department for Education has accepted that there is direct sexual orientation discrimination within the Teachers’ Pension Scheme rules, as the benefits payable to a surviving male spouse or civil partner of a female Scheme member may be less than would be payable if that member was in a same-sex marriage or civil partnership. This could affect female members who had pensionable service prior to April 1988.

Scheme rules will be changed to provide that the male spouse or civil partner of a female member is treated in the same way as a same-sex spouse or civil partner - survivor benefits will be calculated using service from 1 April 1972, or 6 April 1978 if the marriage or civil partnership took place after the last day of pensionable service. This will apply from 5 December 2005, the date that same-sex civil partnerships were introduced.

Teachers’ Pensions will work in conjunction with the Department for Education to implement this change to the Scheme and will provide further details on our approach and timescales in due course.

Teachers’ Pensions will be taking reasonable steps to identify the cases involved and will contact those affected following necessary system changes that will need to be implemented. For more information please take a look at our FAQs.