Re-joining is easy

Each year, many former members of the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme and the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme re-join in order to take advantage of the many benefits on offer. They re-join following career breaks, changes in jobs or following periods where they've opted out of making pension contributions.

If you're looking to re-join, you just need to contact your employer and ask them to re-enrol you. To re-join, you'll have to be aged between 16 and 75 and employed in an established local authority, independent school or further education establishment that's been accepted into the scheme by Scottish Ministers.

When you re-join all the benefit you'll accrue in the future will be added to the preserved benefits you already have.

Automatic enrolment

When you take up employment as a teacher, you're automatically enrolled in the pension scheme. If you then choose to opt out of the scheme, you'll be automatically re-enrolled after three years. At that point, you can either continue in the scheme or opt out again if you don't want to be a member. Similarly, you're also re-enrolled if you take up an additional employment contract with another employer.