Teachers’ Pensions Lump Sum Calculator

Plan your Teachers’ Pension

Stop guessing. Use our tools to project your income, calculate tax-free cash, and understand your options.

NEW Total Pension Projector
Combine Final Salary & CARE pots. Model McCloud, Phased Retirement & Salary Growth.
Pensions Home
Early Retirement
Phased Retirement
Swap part of your pension for a cash lump sum. We explain every acronym as you go. Enter the annual pensions payable at your retirement date for each section.
Tip: Use the pension amounts shown on your most recent Teachers’ Pensions statement. These are today’s values and will usually increase each year until you retire. This calculator is for planning only, not a final retirement quote.

Your pensions at retirement (annual £)

1/80ths = older Final Salary section. Automatic lump sum = 3× this pension. NPA = Normal Pension Age when this part is paid in full.
No automatic lump sum. You can create one by commutation (trading pension for cash).
CARE = Career Average Revalued Earnings. No automatic lump sum; commutation allowed.
Default £268,275. Your overall tax-free cash limit across pensions.
Scheme rule of thumb: you can’t normally take more than about a quarter of the benefits as cash — the calculator already applies this for you.
Quick guide: Max = capped at your tax-free LSA; Choose = may exceed LSA (we flag any taxable excess); Target = works like Max, but aims for a minimum annual pension.
We’ll apply scheme maximums; any part above your LSA may be taxable.
This option only reduces pension to release cash. Enter a value below your total pension if you want an extra lump sum.
Advanced options
These percentages set the order/weighting. They don’t have to add to 100% — we’ll normalise if needed.

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Frequently Asked Questions

The automatic lump sum only exists in the Final Salary 1/80ths section (usually service before 2007) and equals 3× that section’s pension. The extra lump sum is created by commutation — you give up £1/year of pension to get £12 cash. This can apply to CARE and 1/60ths.

  • 1/80ths (NPA 60) stopped on 1 Jan 2007 (includes automatic lump sum).
  • 1/60ths (NPA 65) ran 1 Jan 2007 → 31 Mar 2015 (no automatic lump sum).
  • CARE 2015 started 1 Apr 2015 and is the only scheme now building.

Each section has its own scheme limit. For CARE and 1/60ths, the max extra lump sum is roughly 4.2857× the pension in that section (formula: pension × 30/7). We also apply your HMRC tax-free limit (LSA) to the total cash.

LSA = HMRC’s Lump Sum Allowance — the maximum tax-free cash you can take across your pensions (usually £268,275 unless you have protections). Our calculator shows how much LSA your lump sum uses and warns if you’d exceed it (excess may be taxable).

No — commutation reduces your annual pension only. Survivor and family pensions are usually based on your pension before commutation.