Frequently Asked Questions

The options available depend how long you have been a member of the Scheme and when you joined the scheme.

If you joined before 1 October 2015 and you have:

• Less than three months' service - you will receive a refund* of the value of your own contributions less tax.

• More than three months' and less than two years' service - you can receive a refund* of the value of your own contributions less tax or transfer the value of the whole fund to another registered pension arrangement. The transfer option lapses three months after leaving the Scheme and a refund will be paid automatically.

• Two or more years' service - your fund will remain in the Scheme and continue to be invested until you retire or decide to transfer the value of the whole fund to another registered pension provider. 

If you joined from 1 October 2015 and you have:

• Less than 30 days' service - you will receive a refund* of the value of your own contributions less tax.

• More than 30 days' service - your fund will remain in the Scheme and continue to be invested until you retire or decide to transfer the value of the whole fund to another registered pension provider.
  
  You can leave the Scheme at any time by giving notice to your employer.
  
  * A refund is not available if you have more than two years' pensionable service in TPT Retirement Solutions in total, including previous pensionable service in CARE or another scheme at TPT Retirement Solutions, and/or transferred-in benefits from another scheme. A refund is also not available if a transfer value has been received for you from a Personal Pension or a Stakeholder Pension Plan. Please note if you have been in a salary sacrifice arrangement, there will be no refund payable as no member contributions have been paid. (The employer pays over the total value of the contributions due).

For Automatic Enrolment (AE) please note:

• If you opt out of the Scheme within 30 days, after your employer has automatically enrolled you then you are treated as though you never joined. Any contributions deducted from your pay will be returned to you by your employer subject to the relevant tax and National Insurance deductions.

• If you continue to be employed, your employer will be required to re-enrol you into the Scheme upon the third anniversary of your employer's staging date. If you are re-enrolled then you will have the option to opt out again.

Employees who opt out of an AE scheme or voluntarily cease active membership of a qualifying scheme have a statutory right to opt back in to a qualifying scheme after 12 months. Please also note that the employer may allow them to opt in before 12 months but this is discretionary.

 

A defined benefit (DB) scheme such as a Final Salary or Career Average scheme provides a pension amount based on pensionable service, an accrual rate (1/60th, 1/80th etc.) and a link to pensionable salary. It also promises a specific income at retirement.

A defined contribution (DC) scheme will provide a pension based on various factors including the amounts paid in, the charges taken out, and the performance of the investments and the cost of buying an annuity (i.e. pension) at retirement. There are no guarantees of the amount of pension you will receive from a DC scheme.

The pension scheme is available to both full-time and part-time employees. If you are going to work part-time then your employer will inform us of the hours you are contracted to work and your part-time salary.

If you are a member of one of the CARE benefit structures in the Scheme, your benefits are based on your earnings each year. If you work part-time, or if your working hours change, this will be reflected in your pensionable earnings. 

It isn't necessary for the administrators to convert your earnings and service to full-time equivalents in order to calculate your benefits - they simply use your pensionable earnings in each year of your membership.

If you are a member of one of the Final Salary benefit structures and you work less than your employer's standard weekly hours, it is usually necessary to convert your part-time working into a full-time equivalent before working out your pension benefits.

To do this it is necessary to establish:

• Your weekly part-time contractual hours

• Your employer's standard weekly full-time hours

Your Pensionable Service and Pensionable Salary are then adjusted as follows:

Pensionable Service Adjustment

This calculation will give you a reduced period of pensionable service based upon the proportion of full-time hours that you work:

Your Pensionable Service

X

Your Hours

÷

Standard Hours

Pensionable Salary Adjustment

This calculation increases your actual (part-time) salary up to your full-time equivalent:

Your Pensionable

X

Your Hours

÷

Your Hours

This method is used to ensure that you do not lose out because of choosing to work part-time. Any previously accrued full time pensionable service will therefore be calculated on your full time equivalent earnings. This also applies if you have previous final salary service but you are now contributing to a different benefit structure and the link to final salary benefits has been maintained.

In all other respects, your benefits are calculated in the same way as under normal provisions of the Scheme but based upon your adjusted Pensionable Service & Adjusted Final Pensionable Salary.

The following example shows how this works in practice:

Actual Hours Worked	21 per week
Standard Full-time Hours	35 per week
Actual Pensionable Salary for part-time hours	£8,500 p.a.
Pensionable Service	10 years

Adjusted Pensionable Service is worked out as follows:

10 years x 21 hours ÷ 35 hours = 6 years

Adjusted Pensionable Salary is worked out as follows:

£8,500 x 35 hours ÷ 21 hours = £14,167

Your contributions to the Scheme will be based on your actual part-time Pensionable Salary and not the adjusted Pensionable Salary as referred to above.

If it seems likely that a member may need to leave early because of ill health, you should inform the Administration Team as soon as possible who will provide guidance on eligibility. The Administration Team will provide a questionnaire for completion and return. The member must also complete and return a form of consent for the Administration Team to obtain medical reports.

Once the ill-health retirement is approved, we will need a completed Withdrawal Form. For active members, the ill-health pension is payable from the day after the ‘date of leaving’ notified on the form.

Ill health pensions are reviewed periodically to check a member has continued eligibility to receive benefits.

For more information, please refer to our Employer Administration Guide - Defined Benefit for CARE and Final Salary Benefit Structures.

For details of Sick Leave, please refer to the Employer Administration Guide - Defined Benefit for CARE and Final Salary Benefit Structures.

In the rules, ‘family leave’ means leave that men or women are entitled to take by law – either paternity leave when a child is born or adopted, or parental leave to care for a child.

If such leave is paid, the rules apply as for maternity leave. If unpaid, the rules apply as for any other temporary absence. In respect of any Additional Paternity Leave (APL) applicable to parents who wish to share time off during their baby's first year, APL will be treated in the same way as maternity leave.

If you die whilst on family leave the full range of death benefits will be paid. These would be based on the rate of earnings you would have been receiving if you were not on family leave.

The benefit statement shows:

• The member's personal details and membership dates

• The contributions credited to the member’s savings pot by both the member and the employer during the preceding Scheme year. Please note that the statement will only show contributions that have been received and invested prior to the statement date. Contributions are usually received by TPT Retirement Solutions the month after the month in which they are deducted, in accordance with statutory deadlines; for example, the contributions in respect of September are usually received during October. Any contributions received or invested after the year-end will be included in the next year’s statement.

• The value of the member's savings pot at the statement date (split between the investment funds)

• A Statutory Money Purchase Illustration (SMPI) of projected benefits. This is an illustration of the benefits that could be provided at the member's Selected Retirement Date assuming contributions continue at the current rate and using specific assumptions for salary growth and investment return.

If you are invested in the default Target Date Fund, a charge of 0.5% of the value of your individual pension fund will be deducted each year to cover expenses and investment costs. Other charges apply in respect of the following funds:

- Socially Responsible Investment Fund   0.45%
- Global Equally Fund                                0.45%
- Bond Fund                                               0.45%
- Indexed Linked Gilt                                  0.45%
- Cash Fund                                               0.47%
- Ethical Target Date Funds                       0.70%
- Diversified Growth Fund                          0.97%
- Property Fund:                                         1.02%

Further fund expenses may also apply up to a maximum of 0.04% a year. See the relevant Fund Fact sheet for further details.

Transaction charges may also apply in addition to those detailed above, for example broker commission, stamp duty or the cost of buying and selling investments. These charges vary depending on a variety of factors including the amount of money being switched on any one day. 

Depending on what you choose to do at retirement, there may be charges for setting up a pension (or ‘annuity’) with another provider, as TPT Retirement Solutions does not pay pensions direct to members of defined contribution schemes. If you choose to set up a pension at retirement you can receive free basic advice from PensionWise, use your own Independent Financial Adviser or we can pass your details to the JLT Pension Decision Team (there is a charge for the latter).

We reserve the right to charge for additional quotations where a number of quotations have already been provided over the previous 12-month period. This includes retirement information, transfer quotations and divorce quotations.

Fixed charges, to cover our administration costs, will apply if you divorce or end your civil partnership and your pension is shared with your former spouse or civil partner.

If you are over the age of 55, you can choose to take retirement anytime. If you are under the age of 55 and joined the scheme after 5 April 2006, you will need to apply for and be accepted for early retirement by our Trustees following advice from our medical adviser. Upon retirement, you will have several options available. To find out more visit www.tpt.org.uk/at-retirement

If your life expectancy is deemed to be less than 12 months you may be eligible to take your fund as a one off payment which is tax free. In order to qualify for this we would require evidence from a medical professional such as your GP or consultant.

In the event that you need to consider taking retirement benefits early due to ill-health, please contact us for further information.

If you leave your employer, you cannot continue as an active (contributing) member of the Scheme. Your employer should automatically provide us with your date of leaving without the need for you to contact us. We will write to you with full details of your options on leaving. If you are changing jobs and moving house please remember to inform us of your new address as soon as possible to ensure correspondence is issued correctly.

The options available are:

• A deferred pension

• A transfer of your benefits to another pension provider

• A refund of any contributions you have paid to the Scheme, but only if you leave the Scheme with less than two years’ qualifying service. Your total qualifying service in the Scheme includes any other memberships you have with TPT Retirement Solutions. Please note if you have been in a salary arrangement, there will be no refund payable as no member contributions have been paid. (The employer pays over the total value of the contributions due).

If you are taking up new employment with another participating employer of the Scottish Housing Associations' Pension Scheme (SHAPS), within 30 days you can claim continuous pensionable service under the Scheme. In these circumstances, please make sure your new employer is aware of your position, as they are required to submit an Internal Transfer Form (P40) to us. We do not require a new application form. If you are moving to the defined contribution (DC) option, an internal transfer is not possible.

Please note that if you have opted-out of the scheme and continue to be employed your employer may be required to automatically re-enrol you into the pension scheme at a later date, in which case you would have to take further action to opt out or cease membership of the scheme should you wish to do so.  Generally employees are re-enrolled every three years under auto-enrolment regulations.  See Auto-Enrolment for further information.