Teachers' Pensions Avis 

My mother died 5 months ago but TP keeps asking me to confirm her death with no reply automated emails even though I've now reported 3 times. They ask me to fill out a death benefits form even though she'd been retired for 30+ years and there are none.
When I go to fill out the form (because I can't actually get anyone to talk to me) it won't let me proceed without my NI number but I'm not a UK citizen so I don't have one. I've submitted numerous complaints and guess what, I just get more no reply automated email. All I want is her P60 so that I can do her taxes overseas.
Let's how the ombudsman get them to provide this for me. Look at these reviews. Absolutely disgraceful. The anxiety and distress they've caused me while I'm grieving is disgusting.

Pension due to be processed on 1st September (received email on 20th August from Teachers’ Pension saying pension would definitely be processed on 1st Sept) and, over 4 weeks later, still waiting!!!! Sent several secure messages and only had one reply telling me that my pension would be processed shortly (no dates given). Lodged a formal complaint - automatic email sent to me saying I would get a response in 15 working days - appalling. I had to borrow money to finance a planned special holiday to celebrate my retirement, after 37 years of teaching.

Lump expected on 12th Sept, received nothing, when I called I was asked "why I needed the money". Called every other day, the response from the "customer facing" call handlers, is "we apologise, we understand" or silence.. I asked will I get my monthly payments, reply was "we can't confirm, sorry".... utter sh*te

Lump sum due to be paid on the 1st September, still waiting. It’s now the 29th September. Numerous phone calls, talking to administrative staff who know nothing. They have no knowledge and no information. Having been kept on hold for an average of 30 minutes each time, you are then kept on hold while they email administrative staff who do know something, so that they can repeat the information to you, which is basically, wait 10 working days. I have no wage and I have financial commitments that the lump sum was going to cover. Two formal complaints, numerous phone calls and still no contact or communication from Capita/teachers pensions. So distressing. Bank charges and loss of interest, and one of the the worst things is the feeling that not a single one of them care.

Teachers pension are useless. Over an hour wait to get any one to awnser . Emails go unanswered for weeks , issues with pension ignored. Virtually impossible to get them to sort anything out

My annual rise in Teachers’ pension rose by 1% this year. Is this what we are to expect from now on?

I have asked for information re the calculation of my pension for over 18 months . Despite numerous attempts to retrieve this information I am still no further forward .
Complaints are ignored , phone calls become disconnected . The representative that I last spoke to agreed that my complaint wasn’t being dealt with and suggested I went to my MP .

Uncommuncative and unhelpful. Persistently missed deadlines, did appear to understand their own systems or procedures. Caused anxiety and confusion. They really need to improve.

Warning. The claim process is designed to make sure you do not get your lump sum on time. I applied months in advance, and all seemed OK. Then 3 weeks before retirement (and I retire at the end of September, which is unusual so they cannot claim they were busy) a form dropped into my pension portal online. Conveniently no email was sent to tell me, but this form is essential and must be completed. Now bear in mind they take 10 working days to do anything, and the form has to be posted, no electronic submission allowed. That means with the best will in the word, your form might just get processed on your actual retirement day. So many questions. Why is such an important form not accompanied by a text and maybe a letter (after all you have to submit a written copy)? At what point would they bother to follow up if you have not returned the form? Is their plan to wait until you don't get your lump sum, or perhaps they are just hoping you have changed your mind about retiring and don't want the money? Even the letter with the form is designed to confuse. It just says the form is important and they look forward to your reply. No indication where to send the form, and the instructions about how to download a copy are inaccurate.

All in all a huge waste of time. And don't make any financial plans based on receiving your lump sum on time. I claims my NHS pension last year. They posted the same form 2 months in advance, and emailed to let me know it was essential.

The Teachers Pensions scheme is without doubt the worst customer expreience I have ever had. I would give zero stars if that were possible. It has taken me two year to finally receive a small sum in lieu of my pension - possibly one of the most simple procedures a pension provider could have!
My initial contact was good. I could get through on the phone and staff were invariably helpful. However, that become increasingly difficult with wait time of up to an hour becoming normal. Trying to get anywhere using the website messaging system was hopeless. Long delays, unanswered questions, the organisations own deadlines usually missed (including for dealing with complaints). I was sent wrong forms and waited months , was told it would take only days once the right form,s were sent, when it actually took several more months. I made and attempted dozens of phone calls and website messages with little progress. It was a very dispiriting experience.
This is clearly a dysfunctional organisation unfit for the job it purports to do. I pity anybody reliant on its services and am very glad to be free of them at last!

If giving 0 was a possibility, I would have. This is the most inefficient government service I've ever encountered! Does anyone (a human being) actually work at TP? This service is the cause of so much anxiety at the end of a teacher's career; it is worse than being in the workplace!

I wish it were possible to leave minus stars because this organisation would receive them.
I, along with all those who were contacted regarding transitional protection, was told that all we had to do was to get our forms back. We did. We are still waiting. How long can it take?
I’m not going to say anything new in my review but even official complaints don’t get honoured. I’m going to go to BBC Radio Four’s You And Yours consumer programme and get it highlighted - I know my fellow retirees and prospective retirees have already done the same. It’s a travesty.

Transitional options sent back in February. 7 months later payments not made. How can it take so long after all the calculations are made? No date the calculations are now out of date and will need redoing. In the meantime I've missed out on a year's ISA allowance, and higher interest rates.
Complaints made, but apparently no dates can be given and you shouldn't rely on this money. It makes a huge difference when you're surviving on a pension

Very difficult to get through to someone. When Ieventually spoke to someone they were extremely rude and unhelpful. Tried a second time. Moderately less rude, equally unhelpful. On my third attempt, I spoke to someone who was polite and tried to assist me with my queries-unfortunately no progress was made. The one star is in honour of my third attempt.

Still waiting for my RSS. Apparently I am a complex case but I'm not. Thousands of us in same boat and each deadline gets extended.

I had a dreadful experience last year when I took premature retirement. Every time I phoned (which was probably 20+ times) I was on hold for over an hour, and was told something completely different each time. I made formal complaints twice and they failed to comply with their own deadline for investigating, they raised cases for me apparently marked as “urgent”, and I heard nothing back. Nobody apologised, nobody was “sorry”, mostly they were dismissive, sometimes they were nice, but often they were rude. I’d just had surgery for cancer at the time and should’ve been recuperating, but instead I was constantly on the phone to TPS and felt like I was trapped in the twilight zone. It was eventually resolved, and I intended to pursue them for loss of interest, but in the end I didn’t have the stamina

Thank you for getting all your ducks in a row and having everything work to schedule. Lump sum appeared at 00.01am on September first and first monthly payment on schedule on day before my birth date.

Having contacted TPS for the last year I am still yet to received the monies owed to me re overpayment into the scheme. This is now theft.

Gave a 1 as there was no 0 rating.
Communication and supportive interaction during an understandably stressful period of one's career is almost non existent. Absolutely dreadful! Almost aggressive response to desperate requests for help, that’s if I did finally manage to get through to a human being. I was even asked not to contact them directly! Who else am I supposed to turn to for informed support? I was left with the feeling that I received my pension despite TP, not thanks to them.

I have spent almost 50 minutes completely wasting my time trying to get any sense out of the TPA. To be fair, the operator I spoke to was doing her best to be helpful, but after the 3rd time of re-setting my password, when the website forced me to reset my PIN and then didn’t accept it, the call terminated - I didn’t shut the call down. Do they have a time limit on the length of ‘phone calls I wonder?

As I haven’t been on the site for a while, when I managed to get into it yesterday, I was reminded that I’d made a complaint on 24th July. It was replied to by the Head of Operations at the TPA on 7th August who said it would be dealt with in 15 working days, although this could be longer depending on the nature of the complaint. Yesterday was day 27!! I told the operator I was speaking to that I was giving them until Friday of this week, so on what would be day 31, if I hadn’t had a response I would be calling them again, and making a complaint about the complaint! Apparently, the operator escalated this.

After an extremely frustrating morning however, I am seriously thinking that I never want to speak to the TPA ever again!