All non local authority schools such as academies, must submit an End of Year Certificate by the last working day of May each year. The process can be time consuming and complex, especially if there are any discrepancies. Here are our tips to making the process more efficient and less stressful.
What is the End Of Year Certificate (EOYC)?
The EOYC provides an assurance to the Secretary of State that all pension contributions due, have been correctly paid over to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. It essentially compares what “should” have been paid to what has actually been paid and shows any adjustments. There’s no materiality, so it has to be correct.
What is the EOYC process?
- Complete and submit your unaudited EOYC by the last working day in May each year.
- Send your unaudited EOYC to your auditors to check.
- Submit your audited EOYC to Teachers’ Pensions by the last working day in September.
To get started, schools can download their EOYC template from the Teachers’ Pensions Employer Portal.
Tip: When completing the form, first thing is to ensure that you choose the correct employer type, this should be “Non-local authority” for academy schools. If the incorrect employer type is selected, then the forms that your auditor needs to complete on your behalf will not appear and they will need to contact you to correct this.
Information you need for your EOYC
- Payroll data: if you outsource your payroll, your providers should have completed this for you.
- Year to date total contributions: you should expect an email from Teachers’ Pensions by the end of April each year, stating your total contributions. When you enter this figure into the EOYC it should match your payroll data. If it doesn’t, then an under/over payment will show which must be investigated and reconciled before you submit the form.
- Any changes to opted out members.
This year, the EOYC must be uploaded to Teachers’ Pensions by 30 May 2025 – which is during half term so bear this in mind if you’re not in that week, you should complete this before you go off.
The form will then need to be printed and signed by a responsible individual, such as headteacher or CFO but not your payroll provider or payroll manager.
Even though you may have delegated your payroll to an external provider, you as a trust have overall responsibility to check and make sure that the contributions are correct. If errors have been made, the Trust is ultimately liable for any shortfall (which can be costly if you are unable to trace an ex-employee).
Ongoing checks throughout the year will save you time
By checking your payroll data each month, you can correct any errors before they have an impact.
Recommended monthly checks:
- Check contributory salary matches what’s in your monthly payroll
- Review your opt outs to ensure they are correct
- Analyse the contribution by tier (to check everyone is in the right tier)
- Spot checks on tier banding so the correct contribution percentages have been applied.
Our top tips
Regular checks: There is a tool on the Teachers’ Pensions website that completes a reconciliation for you. Your payroll provider may be able to link their software to it. It will automatically send you an alert if there are any discrepancies each month. You can then correct any errors as soon as you are alerted to them. We recommend speaking to your payroll provider to get this set up going forward (you can’t do this for pervious months, but you can set it up for future months)
Opt outs: When a new employee joins the trust, they should be automatically enrolled into the scheme. If a school is transferred into the trust, under TUPE employees should be enrolled into the scheme automatically. Anyone who was opted out with their previous employer, will need to opt out of the new pension scheme. Employees have up to 3 months to opt out and can backdate it by 3 months but can’t backdate any more than that. Opt-outs only last 3 years so you will have re-enrollment dates – our advice would be to choose a single date and apply it to all employees regardless of the date in the year they originally opted out. You can then send a opt out reminder to everyone on one date rather than having lots of dates throughout the year.
Spot checks save time: It’s unlikely that you will be able to check every employee for errors each month, but each month, spot check some employees that have adjustments, overtime, or back pay, for example. Then if you spot any errors, you can have your payroll providers correct this before payments are made. This prevents mistakes becoming costly or an administrative burden down the line.
If you have any questions or queries about the EOYC process, please speak to our academy specialists below.
