The Teachers’ Pension Scheme covers state-school teachers in England and Wales, around 720,000 active members and about the same number of deferred ones. Most teachers are now accruing in the 2015 career-average section at 1/57 a year, but a lot of long-serving teachers still hold final-salary benefits in the 2007 (NPA 65) or pre-2007 (NPA 60) sections too.
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Teachers’ Pension Scheme: plain-English guide for 2026/27
The full plain-English guide for this scheme, what it is, how the sections fit together, what you contribute and what you get out.
What members usually ask
- Am I in final salary or career average?
- Depends on when you joined and your age on 1 April 2012. McCloud has now also given pre-April-2022 service a choice between the two.
- How much am I paying in?
- Contributions are tiered by full-time-equivalent salary, between 7.4% and 11.7% in 2026/27.
- What is Phased Retirement?
- You can take part of your pension while continuing to teach, subject to a 25% drop in pensionable pay during the phase.
- Why does the administrator keep changing?
- Capita are handing scheme administration to TCS in 2026; this is causing some service disruption during the transition.
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