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Membership
Membership of the STSS is automatic if you are between the ages of 18 and 75 and you are:
- employed in an establishment maintained by a local authority or in an establishment grant-aided by the Scottish Ministers; or
- employed in an independent school or further or higher education establishment that has been accepted into the Scottish Teachers’ Superannuation Scheme;
We also accept employment in certain other establishments. If you are in doubt, ask us or your employer whether you can join the scheme.
From 1 April 1999 all part-time teachers were taken into the STSS automatically.
Opting out
Membership of the STSS is not compulsory. You can elect to opt out at any time, to make alternative pension provision. You can do this by completing form – STSS:(OPT OUT) obtainable from your employer.
We firmly recommend that before making any decision to opt out of the STSS, you very carefully compare the cost of your options and the relative merits of the packages of benefits provided by the STSS, personal pension plans and the State Second Pension.
An independent financial adviser should be able to help you in this, or you may wish to contact your professional association.
LighthouseGP Ltd is an Appointed Representative of Falcon Group plc, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and the company is recommended by the Association of Headteachers and Deputies in Scotland.
SPPA do not offer financial advice nor do they recommend a preferred source for receiving advice. On the recommendation of AHDS a link to LighthouseGP Ltd is provided however by providing this link SPPA do not imply that they are endorsing the services or products of LighthouseGP Ltd. Links made to other sites are used at your own risk and SPPA accept no liability for any linked sites.
SPPA are aware that regular requests for detailed information about members from Independent Financial Advisors (IFA’s) have increased over the past months. The requests normally contain a series of questions relating to the member and the pension scheme. As a result these requests can result in creating an increased amount of work for SPPA to fulfil and that has a direct impact on our level of service to other members of the scheme.
Under the disclosure regulations we do not have to comply with individual requests for information where information has been supplied within the last 12 months. Therefore if the member has received a benefit statement etc we will not respond with further information.
Where additional information is required SPPA will only be able to process a request where payment of an administration fee has been received. The current charge is set at £200 plus VAT although this figure is subject to annual reviews.
If you have opted out you can re-enter the scheme at any time whilst in reckonable service, If you decide to join or rejoin the scheme, you should complete form – STSS:(OPT IN)12