A gap in teaching service rarely costs you the Teachers' Pension, but its length changes how your earlier pension is treated when you return.

For a teachers pension gap in service, the number to know is five years. A gap of five years or less leaves your earlier pension rising much as if you had stayed in; a longer one changes how that pension grows and how final salary benefits are worked out. The rules here are for England and Wales. Holes in your own teaching record? A returned call that this page's short form can request puts your dates before an FCA-authorised adviser, for nothing.

Does a gap in service lose my Teachers' Pension?

No. Leaving pensionable teaching, or opting out, makes you a deferred member, and what you have already earned stays in the scheme. Teachers' Pensions says: "When a member leaves pensionable employment or decides to opt out of the Scheme, they are classed as a deferred member."

You can claim at your normal pension age if you met the minimum qualifying period: two years' service if you were in pensionable employment on or after 6 April 1988, not necessarily consecutive. A repayment of contributions is possible only with less than two years' qualifying service. The full rule is on how long you need to qualify.

Teachers' pension break in service: what the five-year line does

The career average regulations draw the line at five years. If a deferred member returns to pensionable service after a gap not exceeding five years, the deferred account is closed and the active account is re-established, "adjusted as if the member had continued as an active member during the gap in service but had received no pensionable earnings." So the gap adds no new pension, but nothing is wiped.

The line also decides how older benefits grow. Teachers' Pensions says: "If you’re out of service for five continuous years or less, your previous benefits will also increase by Treasury Order plus 1.6%." After a longer absence, "your previous benefits will continue to be increased by Treasury Order only after you return to pensionable employment", without the extra 1.6%. The test is five continuous years out of service.

A member who had qualified before the break and later returned also gets a "hypothetical calculation" of final salary benefits at retirement. It works as an underpin: benefits are worked out from your average salary at the break, brought up to current value, and compared with the normal calculation, with the better of the two paid. The ordinary sums are on the calculator page.

Final salary link or career average: which applies after a break?

For new service the answer is now simple. The final salary scheme closed for new contributions on 31 March 2022, so whatever you earn after a break builds up in career average, at 1/57th of pensionable earnings a year. Before that date, a break of more than five continuous years could move a returning final salary member into career average. For the older scheme, see what a final salary pension is.

What a break still decides is the salary link, which lets career average salaries feed the final salary calculation. Teachers' Pensions says that once a single break passes five years and ends after 1 April 2015, "the salary link is broken and we’ll use the salaries notified to us at the time of the break to calculate your final salary benefits." A shorter break leaves the link in place.

Older rules add a "disqualifying break" for members who were in before 1 January 2007 and whose final salary benefits are payable from 60: after a gap over five years that ends after 31 December 2007, service before the break keeps 60, but final salary service after a return before 1 April 2015 carries 65. See when you can take a Teachers' Pension.

The McCloud remedy also turns on a five-year break. Teachers' Pensions says: "If you've had a break in pensionable service of more than five years, you won't be affected by the changes." The choice it gives affected members is on the McCloud remedy page.

Leaving, opting out and rejoining

Opting out stops contributions while you keep working. Teachers' Pensions says: "Yes, you can Opt out and re-join whenever you’d like and as many times as you’d like." The three-month refund window after enrolment is covered in our Teachers' Pension overview.

An opted-out member is a deferred member, like someone who has left. Whether opted-out months count towards the five years is something an adviser can check with you, free, on a call-back.

Missing years or contributions on your record: getting them corrected

Teachers' Pensions asks members to check their service history on My Pension Online regularly, because it uses that history to calculate retirement benefits. A missing line is not always missing money: "Missing service doesn't necessarily mean any contribution payments have been missed, simply that some details haven't been provided correctly." Steps to take:

  • Compare the service history with your own dates, school by school.
  • Check your payslips for the pension deduction. If the amount looks wrong, contact your employer's payroll department straight away; if you have more than one employer, each should deduct.
  • For missing service, contact the employer you worked for at the time, as Teachers' Pensions now asks while it restores services after moving to a new administrator.

The regulations show why it matters. An employer must deduct contributions in each pay period and may catch up in a later one. If you leave a job where the employer neither deducted nor paid them over, regulation 194 lets the scheme manager demand the missing contributions from you, with interest it may waive. If the whole amount and interest is not paid within three years of that demand, regulation 24 lets the scheme manager decide the period is not pensionable service. A service history that disagrees with your payslips is worth a conversation; this page's short form can book one with an FCA-authorised adviser for nothing.

Can Additional Pension make up for a gap?

Not by putting missing years back. Additional Pension buys extra annual pension in multiples of £250 a year, through salary deductions or a one-off lump sum, over a payment period of up to 20 years that must finish before your normal pension age. It sits in a separate account beside your main benefits rather than increasing them.

Teachers' Pensions says: "You can decide at any time after returning to pensionable employment to purchase Additional Pension either for yourself and/or for your spouse or partner." It advises independent advice before a lump sum, because of tax. More options are on adding to your Teachers' Pension.

Scottish and Northern Irish teachers have different schemes

Everything above is the England and Wales scheme. Teachers' Pensions refers to equivalent teachers' schemes in Scotland and Northern Ireland; the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) has its own teachers' pages. Their rules on breaks and rejoining may differ, so check with the scheme concerned. The Scottish position has its own page.

Gap in service: what else teachers ask

Will my pension keep growing while I am away?

Deferred benefits are index-linked from the date you leave, and career average benefits rise each year by the Treasury Order amount. The extra 1.6% applies to earlier benefits only on a return within five continuous years.

Will a gap lower the pension I eventually get?

The gap itself earns nothing, because career average pension is built from pensionable earnings and a gap has none. Your earlier pension is not cut, though after more than five years out it loses the extra 1.6% and may lose the salary link. What teachers pay in shows how contributions follow pay.

Does part-time work count as a gap?

No. If you worked part-time, the whole period counts towards your qualifying service, including the days you do not work. Your benefits are based on the pensionable earnings you received.

I left teaching before 1988. Does the gap matter?

If you left service before 6 April 1988, Teachers' Pensions says you need five years' service to qualify, not two.

Back in a staffroom after years away? This page's short form can request a returned call from an adviser to go over your dates, free. More free help is on the advice page.

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