Tips for Substitute Teachers

It’s Substitute Teachers’ Appreciation Week, and we’re celebrating the important role that substitute teachers play in schools across Alberta. Being a substitute teacher will impact your ATRF pension in a few different ways. We’ve highlighted a few things to consider, whether you’re a substitute teacher now, you were one in the past, or you are considering being one in the future (even after retirement).

• Purchasing Time to Increase Pensionable Service: Substitute teachers do not contribute to the plan, but they have an option to purchase their substitute days to qualify for a pension, or increase their pension amount (officially called purchasing service). As your pension is partly based on your total years of pensionable service, purchasing time can increase your total pension amount when you retire. This applies whether you’re a career substitute teacher, or you just did some subbing for a little while. There’s more information about this service on our Purchasing Service page.
• Post-Retirement Substitute Teaching: After retirement, there’s a limit on how many days you can work under a teaching contract while still receiving your pension (this is called the “0.6 rule”). The good news is substitute teaching doesn’t count towards the 0.6 rule, meaning you can sub to your heart’s content without it interfering with your pension. Read more about this under the Returning to Teaching page.

If you have any questions about substitute teaching and your pension, get in touch with us – one of our pension counsellors will be happy to walk you through your options. Thanks to substitute teachers—we appreciate all that you do!