What happens if you return to teaching after retiring?

If you’re not ready to stop work altogether, you can retire and take your full pension, then return to work as a Teacher after a break of at least 24 hours.

You can choose to work part-time or full-time – there is no limit on the hours you can work although you may be subject to an earnings limit. Your current pension payments won’t be reduced or stopped and you’ll automatically be re-entered into the pension scheme, providing you are under age 75. 

You must inform us immediately if you become re-employed as a teacher, confirming your start date and details of your employer.

This will help ensure you aren't overpaid pension at any time. 

If you wish, you can opt out of the scheme and stop paying contributions at any time by completing the opt out form. 

If you want to go back to work as a Teacher in Scotland, you need to take a minimum of 24 hours’ break in service before your pension can be paid. The break starts the date your pension is payable from.

The 24 hour break in service should immediately follow your last day of Teaching employment, including any unused annual leave. You can take it on any day of the week, including weekends or bank holidays.

You can go back to work for yourself or another company after retiring as a Teacher in Scotland. You don’t need to tell the SPPA.

You can choose to work part-time or full-time – there is no limit on the hours you can work.

Your current pension payments won’t be reduced or stopped.

Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme

If you retired because you reached your normal pension age or took premature retirement, an earnings limit will apply whether your re-employment is pensionable or not. If you exceed your earnings limit, your current pension may be reduced or temporarily suspended.

If you're currently on phased retirement you won't be subject to an earnings limit but when you take your final benefits after phased retirement, an earnings limit will apply.

If you retired on an actuarially reduced pension your pension will not be affected.

Scottish Teachers' 2015 Pension Scheme

If you're receiving a pension from the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme, your pension will not be affected by any re-employment.

Calculating your earnings limit

In the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme, your pension may be affected if your pension and re-employed earnings exceed your earnings limit.

If you're subject to an earnings limit you will have received the calculation of your limit, along with your award documentation when you retired.

If we know you're re-employed we'll contact you annually with an updated earnings limit, for as long as you're re-employed. However, you can contact us if you need to request an earnings limit.

You need to monitor your earnings and to notify us if you're approaching your earnings limit.

Your employer will supply us with details of your earnings at the tax year end and we're obliged to recover all overpayments.

The easiest way to check your earnings in any tax year is to look at Your Earnings to Date plus contributions paid in your payslip.

Going back to work as a Teacher after taking ill-health retirement

If you're in receipt of an ill health pension it's because you've been deemed permanently medically unfit to teach.

If you are considering returning to work, you should contact us in writing immediately.

If you wish to return to teaching, your employer must be satisfied that you're fit to teach.

Your pension may be revised or stopped if:

• You're receiving total incapacity benefits and you take up further employment. This would cause your enhancement to stop immediately. If you want your enhancement to continue after taking up employment, you must provide acceptable medical evidence that you still meet the conditions for your enhancement.
• You're receiving partial incapacity benefits and you take up employment as a teacher or in another education capacity covered by the scheme.
• You began receiving ill health retirement benefits before 1 April 2007 and you return to full or part time teaching employment prior to turning age 60. This includes short periods of supply teaching.

If your pension is stopped because you return to work, it will only be paid if you become ill again and satisfy the medical advisor that you're unfit to teach, otherwise you can retire at the normal retirement age.

If you retired on ill-health and have been awarded Partial Incapacity, you have been assessed as being permanently unable to teach, but you may be capable of carrying out other types of employment. If you return to work outwith teaching or outwith another education capacity covered by the Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme, your Partial Incapacity ill-health pension will not be affected.

If you retired on ill-health and have been awarded Total Incapacity, you have been assessed as being permanently unable to teach and the ability to carry out other types of employment is impaired by more than 90% on a permanent basis. You must notify SPPA if you take up any further employment if you are in receipt of a Total Incapacity pension.

You will have to provide further information on the new employment as well as a medical certificate stating that that the Total Incapacity condition still applies. The information provided will be assessed by our medical advisor and the Total Incapacity enhancement will only remain in payment if SPPA are satisfied that the criteria is still met.

Any overpayment of pension as a result of a member returning to work not meeting the above criteria will be subject to recovery by SPPA.

Short service annuities and second pensions

If you pay contributions for less than one calendar year you'll receive a short service annuity and if you pay contributions for more than one calendar year you'll receive a second pension.

Understanding short service annuities

If you return to work following retirement and then leave again with less than one calendar year's service (less than 365 days) you'll qualify for a short service annuity.

A short service annuity is calculated by your total contributions being divided by a Government Actuary's Department factor based on your age. The annuity will then increase each year in line with inflation. It's not possible to convert your annuity into a lump sum and the annuity does not revert to a dependant in the event of your death.

If your re-employment was in the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme, your short service annuity will be payable at age 60 or 65 depending on your normal pension age.

If your re-employment was in the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme, and paid contributions after 1 April 2015, it will be payable from age 65 or your State Pension age, whichever is later.

You should only apply for a short service annuity if:

• you were a re-employed teacher and have stopped working
• You don't intend to undertake teaching employment that would entitle you to a further pension.
• You are over the normal pension age for the scheme you were in at the time of leaving.

A short service annuity is payable six weeks after SPPA receives your completed application form.

Earning a second pension from your teachers' scheme

The way your benefits from re-employment are calculated depends on how long you work before retiring completely.

If you complete one calendar year of re-employment (365 days), you're eligible to claim a second pension. If you're working part time the whole period counts towards your qualifying service including the days you don’t work. If you returned to work prior to 1 April 2012 you'll remain in the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme and your benefits will be calculated in the same way as your first retirement.

If you returned to work between 2 April 2012 and 31 March 2015 you would have remained in the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme before moving to the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme on 1 April 2015.

This means you'll have mixed benefits in the two different schemes.

If you became re-employed after 1 April 2015 your second pension benefits will be in the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme and will be based on a 1/57th of your pensionable pay for each year you're in the scheme. Your normal pension age in the that scheme will be your State Pension age.

If your re-employment ends before one calendar year, a short service annuity is payable.

Claiming your second pension

You don't have to claim your benefits immediately after you stop re-employment.

If you plan to do further work all of your benefits will be added together when you decide to claim them.

To claim your second pension you should apply to SPPA three months before you want to start taking your second pension benefits from the scheme.

If you’re employed, ask your employer for your application form (as they have to complete a section of the form). If you aren’t currently employed as a teacher, download your application form or contact SPPA.