Ready for Retirement
When you retire, we’ll offer you a choice between your final salary benefits and your CARE benefits for your service between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022. This is called the Remedy period.
These are sometimes known as ‘legacy’ benefits and ‘reformed’ benefits.
All Teachers members started building up pension in the CARE scheme from 1 April 2022, regardless of their previous protection.
To help you decide, we’ll send you a choice letter, known as a Remedial Service Statement (RSS). This will show your pension benefits side-by-side in your final salary and CARE scheme for the Remedy period, to help you decide which option is the right one for you.
We're aiming to start offering members this choice on retirement from April 2024.
Retiring before April 2024
If you’re planning to retire before April 2024, we’ll calculate your pension benefits in the final salary scheme for 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022.
This means your service for the Remedy period will be automatically moved into your legacy scheme until you’ve made your choice.
Then we’ll automatically contact you with your Remedial Service Statement after you’ve retired.
We’ll start writing to most retired members from April 2024, and we’ll contact everyone to make a Remedy choice by April 2025.
Don’t worry if you don’t hear from us until later in 2024 – you have 12 months from receiving your options to make a choice. After you decide, any change to your payments or tax-free lump sum will be backdated to your retirement date.
If you need help with your retirement planning, you may want to seek help from a professional financial adviser.
Retiring after April 2024
As part of your retirement application, we’ll give you a Remediable Service Statement with options for your final salary and CARE benefits.
At that point, you can make a Remedy choice for your service between 2015 to 2022.