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Options on Leaving
If you leave teaching service, you have three options open to you depending on how long your service is.
Preserve your benefits
Transfer to another scheme
Refund of contributions
Preserved benefits
You can leave your pension benefits in the scheme as all periods of reckonable service are added together and used to qualify for benefits. If you have not qualified when you leave, you may qualify later if you return to teaching and claim your benefits at Normal Pension Age (NPA). All ‘preserved’ benefits are increased in line with the cost of living. They are index-linked from the date you leave.
APPLICATIONS SHOULD BE MADE IN WRITING THREE MONTHS PRIOR TO YOUR NPA. PRESERVED BENEFITS ARE NOT PAID AUTOMATICALLY AND THE SPPA WILL NOT CONTACT YOU!
Transfer Out
If you take up other employment and you want to transfer your pension rights you must apply before NPA. You can only transfer them if the new scheme will accept a transfer. The new scheme must satisfy HMRC requirements. If the transfer is to a scheme that cannot accept the GMP liabilities, the GMP element can be transferred to a Personal Pension Scheme or a Section 32 buy-out with an insurance company.
Refund of contributions
If you have been out of pensionable employment for one month and you have not qualified for benefits, you can take a ‘repayment of contributions’.
To apply for a refund of your contributions please complete application form STSS: (REF)1