Teachers' Pensions Avaliações 

Totally hopeless. Asked to do a log in security update because I live abroad. Offered an option to get a code via SMS but transpired TP can't send this to an overseas number. Advised to try an authenticator App and it doesn't work either because the QR code on TP's website doesn't work. Waited 1.5 hrs to get through to speak to a human.

If I could give a negative 50 here, I would. Where to begin on how shocking TP has become? I've been a member for decades. It was once an efficient pension agency, but TP's so-called 'service' now constitutes an abuse of members' trust - and more. It hides behind one of the most flagrant instances of corporate disregard, complacency and maladministration I've encountered. The more upbeat its online, 'no reply' communications become, the more de-humanising its treatment of its members becomes (those members, it should be said, who fund all jobs at TP).

I completed a CETV form nearly two years ago to get my pension fund valuation (CE or Cash Equivalent) document. It's required for my ex and I to reach a divorce settlement and is supposed to be issued in 3 months max. While people like me wait for their CETV, their lives fall apart. They have to separate but because of the TP limbo, they struggle to pay rent - or they can't afford to separate and are trapped in toxic or abusive domestic situations - or having retired, they have to struggle to find work again.

To phone TP is to weather the phone queue and to have to narrate the problem all over again only to be offered no information at all. One is simply told that TP can offer no timescale. Like others, I've tried repeatedly. No one apologises - unless one specifically points that out. Of course they also make it impossible to speak to a manager. In the 21st-century way, the company is careful to ensure that no one has any responsibility or accountability for your case. Your possible points of contact are incredibly limited and, at each, is a TP person who is well-trained in i) hiding and ii) fobbing you off.

In the last 2 years, they have posted an email address for complaint with a failed inbox system. When you do manage to get a complaint through, a reply comes quickly, but it is generic, cut-and-paste only, and entirely meaningless: it says they will update you within 15 days of the resolution of the issue. There is no timescale given for that resolution. In other words, it's a nonsensical statement. They then have the audacity to 'thank you for your patience'.

I understand that the Transitional Protection Remedy created a backlog - and I made allowances for this. I was patient for 6 months, but their 'service' is now a long-running absurdity. It's Kafkaesque. Words fail.

The Dept for Education repeatedly turns a blind eye as TP fails to meet yet another putative deadline for the resolution of all cases. Meanwhile, people's lives fall apart, and TP continues to send its appallingly bad cut-and-paste replies to very justified complaints. BBC Radio4 and the Guardian have occasionally reported on the scandal - but it hasn't had sustained attention. Capita's mishandling of civil servant cases - also diabolical - has had far more national attention, for some reason. That attention has been good & necessary, but the scandal of Teachers' Pensions should be exposed in Parliament. There should be a class action suit - or several - and compensation for all who have had the misfortune of having to deal with them; those who struggle simply to get information about or payments of the money that is theirs. It's not only CETV documents. People are also waiting 6 months to a year or more for their Transitional Protection Remedy (RSS) payments. I understand that some can't even get their normal pension payments upon retirement. For so many, these are matters of the greatest urgency. Where is the Pension Ombudsman? Where is my union UCU on this? Where is Torsten Bell, Minister for Pensions? Where is the media? If TP is not criminal (and it IS morally criminal), TP's maladministration should at least be found to be unlawful. They treat their members as if they are, at best, inconvenient reference numbers on a computer screen, or static in their ear. How did Teachers' Pensions lose all traces of human decency?

Multiple links on their website broken. but agents consistently direct you to them.

codes for MFA often take more than 10 mins to arrive, by which time the code has expired!

Agents regularly cannot answer your query and apparently cannot transfer you to anyone that can,

takes 30 mins to get through on phone.

have NEVER once received an update but have to call to request one. complete roll of dice to who answers the call.

Impossible to log in, no reply to phone calls, in short a lamentable service!

Disgusting service. Very evasive never followed through what they promised in investigating my case. When I contacted them they make it deliberately stop make any progress. They say they will deal with it but refuse to give any timescale.
Absolutely hopeless a national scandal.

MFA is not working. I spent 40 minutes waiting on hold. My login access was sorted, but 24 hours later it’s telling me that the pin has expired and I need to ring back again.
MFA needs to be scrapped until it is tested and rolled out properly.

No empathy. kept on asking me how much was my pension in pounds last month. I live in France and it's in EUROS. I cannot log in onto the website because I don't have a British mobile. You feel it's a sketch from Little Britain "computer says no"

The teachers pension website access is the most complicated, tedious and onerous task.
Repeated attempts over days result in denied access or a 'fault'.
The adviser by phone was helpful but access again failed.
I cannot waste any more time and will be demanding a paper issue by post.
Old fashioned? Yes. But my P60 will be accessible.

I am giving 2 stars because I like the 'back to the early 90s' feel to the site - and they are at least attempting to use MFA.

However - it does not work. I found I typically cannot log on - not just for hours, but for days and weeks on end.

Pathetic. Will take my money without my consent in a heartbeat. Yet I must jump through ridiculous hoops, up to 10 days and later,to opt out of this sad scheme and be refunded my own money. The most difficult to use, sad excuse for a system option for decent, hardworking teachers.
These people should be investigated for theft and fraud. We deserve better as educators.

If I could give none I would. Horrendous company to deal with. I have not withdrawn from the pension service but they decided I did when I changed jobs. Chasing them for a year for answers and basically told they can't fix it and I now have to reinstate and send them all the payslips from the past year and a half! This is nothing to do with me, I did nothing wrong and it is someone's mistake within their company and I am the one having to spend my time and resources fixing it?! They continue to take a huge chuck on my salary every month and goodness knows where it has gone. To add insult to injury they have added a random month of break in service from December to January for some unknown reason. And again, I am going to have to fix this. I HAVE DONE NOTHING, it is their incompetancy. Absolutely disgraceful.

I have complained several times to them concerning my pension with them, and the response has been non-existent from them. I deferred my pension and now want to take it. Put in a claim and waited. Got no response on progress for two months, contacted them, and got nowhere. After 4 months of waiting finally discovered they had rejected my witness statement. Which I thought was pointless. I never received any correspondence about this until I continuously complained. It has now been 8 months, and still I am none the wiser as to what is happening to my claim. I have complained numerous times, but it falls on deaf ears.

Teacher Pensions is outsourced to the private firm Capita.
They are useless.
As you can see they do not respond to any of the reviews contained here which says it all really doesn't it.
Recently they responded to a complaint I made via a PDF file which I couldn't open. I complained again and asked for a written reply. So they responded with another PDF file!

TP is absolutely awful. I have been waiting since July last year for my 'Transitional Protection' calculations, 10 months ago. I keep getting the same response, 'Others are in a similar position, and we cannot give you a deadline for this'.

It is often impossible to access the website. On the days it is possible, the structure of the site is so bad you go round and round in circles. I have been trying to initiate access to my pension since last October. We are now in June and 2 months past my intended retirement date and I have not received my pension or lump sum. I have had to apply and reapply. All those years I gave to my pupils and now I am sat with a begging bowl. It is intentional. The government hope i will drop dead with the stress. They may win.

very difficult to access and very poor service once you get through. Yet another reason not to go into teaching.

The reviews on here are depressing to read. I have found filling in the forms complicated because of my circumstances, and I can't get an answer when I call. I once spoke to someone but she didn't know how to answer my problem, and didn't know who else to ask.... I won't go on. My experience seems to echo that of others.

I have recently returned to the UK where I taught for 10 years after spending 20 years overseas. I have been trying to find out about my TP entitlement since my return. I originally tried doing this online, but received an error message and the advice to call TP. I did this and was told instead I had to send a letter with 'all my information'. I did this and, concerned about putting so much information in one place, I asked in the letter for an emailed confirmation that it had been received. I also sent the letter recorded delivery. I did not receive an email but, knowing that it had been received, I followed the advice I was given on the phone and allowed 10 working days to have my query answered. On calling TP today at 8.30am, I was put on hold for half an hour, while being told I was 1st in the queue. When my call was answered, the person I spoke to took my name, DOB and NI Number and then disappeared, meaning I had to call back, to then be told I was 42nd in the queue! When my call was eventually answered, I was asked similar questions to those I had previously answered and was then told I had failed the security check. The person I was speaking to suggested I write a letter. Having already done so to no effect I really cannot see the point of doing this again. The person on the phone said they could only answer 'generic' questions but clearly nothing I needed to know was suitably 'generic'. So, having spent 2 hours - largely on hold - on the phone, I remain no closer to knowing what my TP entitlement is or how I can access it. This is honestly the most unhelpful, unprofessional organisation with which I have ever had dealings. I do not blame the people manning the call centre as they are clearly working from a script and lack adequate training, but the organisation as a whole needs to improve procedures and communication and realise they exist for the benefit of their members.

Tried again today. WhatsApp broken, WebChat - not working. Sat in an unmoving phone queue, still 40th. Nobody cares..

TPS is indescribably bad. They completely ignore my correspondence, took over two years to provide an updated CETV and have responded to my three complaints by sending me three holding letters - months and months have passed, and absolutely nothing happens. I am at the point of instructing a solicitor to engage with them - the reviews on this site demonstrate that they are out of control