Is the Teachers' Pension good? Members get a career average pension with ill-health and death cover, pay 7.4% to 12% of salary in 2026/27, and employers add 28.68%.

This page sets out what the Teachers' Pension Scheme in England and Wales provides and what a member gives up, without scoring the scheme for you: the answer turns on each teacher's own position. An FCA-authorised adviser can set salary, health, family and other savings side by side on one call, at no charge; teachers request that call from the form on this page.

What the Teachers' Pension Scheme provides

Teachers' Pensions says career average benefits are "based on 1/57th of your pensionable earnings each year plus index linking". Each year's amount is banked, and the eventual pension is all of the banked amounts added together. Overtime counts as pensionable earnings, and a banked amount carries on being increased after you leave service, though at a lower rate than while you are working. The Teachers' Pension calculator page shows how a worked example comes out.

When it pays out, and what a lump sum costs

Some members also hold final salary service, which is worked out differently. Where the normal pension age is 60, the pension is service multiplied by average salary, divided by 80, with a lump sum of three times the pension. Where it is 65, the divisor is 60. For career average benefits the normal pension age is State Pension age or 65, whichever is later.

To get any benefits at all, a member needs two years' service completed after 5 April 1988 or five years of pensionable service at any time, according to Teachers' Pensions; how long you need to qualify has the detail. Benefits can be paid from age 55 unless ill-health benefits are granted. From 6 April 2028 the general minimum rises to 57, though anyone with scheme service up to 3 November 2021 keeps 55 for early or phased retirement; a member whose first career average service began after that date has 57. Taking career average benefits before normal pension age reduces them. Teachers' Pension age and taking it early cover the reductions.

A lump sum is not automatic for everyone. Members with final salary service from before 1 January 2007 receive one; others can give up pension for a lump sum at £12 for each £1 of pension surrendered, up to 25% of the total value of their benefits. The pension is then lower for life, and the amount cannot be changed once the application form is complete. The lump sum page covers the tax side.

What members pay and what the employer adds

For 2026/27 the member rate runs from 7.4% on an annual salary rate up to £36,198.99 to 12% at £104,414.00 and above, in six bands; Teachers' Pension rates has the full table and how part-time posts are treated. Teachers' Pensions says members receive tax relief on their contributions; the tax relief page goes through how that shows on a payslip.

The employer pays too. Teachers' Pensions states: "The Employer contribution rate is 28.68%, including the 0.08% administration levy." The Government Actuary's Department valuation results, dated 1 July 2026, give a total employer rate of 17.68% of pensionable pay from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2031. Both figures are for England and Wales.

If you can no longer teach: ill-health retirement

Ill-health retirement can be taken before normal pension age without the usual early-retirement reduction, which is part of what membership is worth if illness ends a teaching career. The test is the evidence: the scheme's Medical Advisers "will recommend rejection of any application that is not supported by evidence clearly showing that the Ill-health Retirement criteria are met", and someone no longer in pensionable employment pays the cost of providing that evidence themselves. Former teachers can still apply. How much an ill-health pension would pay depends on the individual record, so ask Teachers' Pensions for a figure. The ill-health retirement page is the place for the full process.

Death benefits for a partner and children

For a career average member who dies in service, Teachers' Pensions says "a death grant of three times your final full-time equivalent salary (at your date of death) will be paid", with no minimum qualifying period. It goes automatically to a surviving spouse, civil partner or qualifying partner unless the member has nominated someone else, and to the estate if there is nobody and no nomination. A nomination can name an unmarried partner but not a trust or charity.

Pensions follow. An adult beneficiary first receives a short-term pension equal to three months' salary, then a long-term pension; for a career average member who dies in service, that long-term pension is 37.5% of the career average pension earned to the date of death, plus 37.5% of a further pension worked out on half the years that would have remained to normal pension age. Dependent children can receive pensions as well, whether the member dies before or after retirement. The death benefits page follows each case through.

Opting out: the three-month refund window and phased withdrawal schools

Before a member opts out, Teachers' Pensions says it encourages them to consider what membership includes: ill-health cover, a death grant, a pension for a partner and any dependent children, income tax relief on contributions, and a pension "based on your salary and service rather than investments".

Timing matters. A refund of contributions deducted is available only if the opt-out form reaches the employer within three months of the date of contractual or automatic enrolment. A member who opts out while working at a school using phased withdrawal cannot opt back in unless they change employer. Ask an adviser, via the form here, how opting out treats the pension you have already built; the call-back costs nothing.

People who opt out sometimes put the money elsewhere. A transfer out of the scheme is a separate and much more restricted route, and the Teachers' Pension AVC page covers paying extra in rather than stopping.

How it sits beside other public-sector pensions

The Teachers' Pension Scheme is an unfunded public-sector scheme. MoneyHelper says that "if you’re in an ‘unfunded’ public sector pension scheme like the Teachers’ Pension Scheme or NHS Pension Scheme , you can only transfer your pension to another defined benefit scheme". Each public scheme has its own rates, ages and cover, so comparing them means reading each on its own terms: the NHS pension, the civil service pension, the Local Government Pension Scheme, USS and the police pension each have a page here. For how the Teachers' Pension works in the round, see the Teachers' Pension Scheme explained.

Teachers in Scotland look to the SPPA's own Scottish teachers' pension pages rather than the scheme described here. The Scotland page explains the difference.

Loose ends on joining, leaving and mixed service

Does the pension rise and fall with investments?

Teachers' Pensions describes the pension as based on salary and service rather than investments. Career average benefits are index-linked while banked.

Can I take my final salary pension and leave the career average part until later?

Yes, once you reach your final salary normal pension age and are out of service. Career average benefits claimed alongside it are reduced because they are paid before their own normal pension age, or they can be left until that age and then paid in full. It does not work the other way round: any unclaimed final salary benefits must be taken when the career average benefits are claimed.

What if I have both final salary and career average service?

Final salary benefits stay in final salary, and salaries earned in career average are used to work them out. A break in pensionable service of more than five years breaks that link.

Can I change my mind after opting out?

Teachers' Pensions publishes an opt-in form for rejoining, apart from the phased withdrawal case above. Ask the scheme what the gap would mean for your own record.

Is joining automatic?

Teachers' Pensions says an employer must enrol a teacher into the scheme by contract, whatever they earn, if they are aged between 16 and 75. Separate auto-enrolment rules also apply to eligible workers, and an employer may postpone them.

Teachers' Pensions holds your own record and is the free place to start for figures, and MoneyHelper gives free, impartial guidance on defined benefit pensions. If you would rather talk the choices through with a qualified FCA-authorised adviser, the call-back is booked through our brief enquiry form and carries no fee.

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