Securing your future: your teachers’ pension benefits

Access to a comprehensive pension scheme is a very valuable benefit of being a teacher in Scotland. Depending on when you began working as a teacher, you’ll qualify for membership of either the Scottish Teachers’ Superannuation Scheme (STSS) or Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme 2015 (STPS 2015). New members are enrolled automatically from the start of their teaching contract, although you can choose to opt out if you wish.

Saving for the future

Both you and your employer make regular contributions towards the cost of providing your pension. Individual contributions are based on your ‘pensionable pay’ and currently range from 7.2% to 11.9% depending on your full-time equivalent salary. Your employer also currently contributes 23% of your pensionable pay to the cost of your pension. Importantly, the contributions you make are taken from your gross salary, tax-free.

The contributions made to your pension scheme give you a broad range of benefits including:

• a guaranteed, index-linked pension for life when you retire
• access to a tax-free lump sum at retirement
• entitlement to an ill-health pension at any age should you become permanently unable to work
• benefits for your dependants when you die
• the option to pay extra contributions for additional pension benefits
• the option to transfer credits from other pension schemes to increase your benefits in your teachers’ pension scheme
• the possibility to transfer accrued benefits out to another scheme should you leave teaching in the future.