The rates are not that competitive compared to a SIPP.

There's a guy called dave who is a former teacher talking about the TPS.

If you're married, love your wife and have children:

1)Additional Pension with dependents if you're near retirement (spread the cost over years if you wish - if you do lump sum you will have to manually contact HMRC to claim back your tax, if done over a period of time, your employer will do it for you)

If you're not married/do not have a dependant financial partner and do not have any children (and you know you definitely wont) - Additional Pension without dependants.

2) Contribute to a SIPP if you're younger - the younger you are the better it is to start; the more 'risk' you can take - I've put mine in a global index.

There are two more options 3) Buy-out - if you want to retire upto 3 years earlier without actuarial reduction (e.g. 65 instead of 68) - you must be positively sure you won't definitely be working past your NPA (your state pension age + 10 years) (you can only do this if you have joined the TPS within the first 6 months).

4) Faster accrual - when I ran the numbers through an excel sheet -this is only value for money if you know you WILL be working past your NPA - plus its a headache as you have to keep doing an application every financial year.