School Support Staff pernsion surplus should be used to help the low paid workers themselves - not to fund teachers' pay rise, NEU Response

From the GMB Union 

Surplus in the school support staff pension scheme must be used to help the workers themselves- not to fund the pay rises of teachers, GMB Union has told the Education Secretary. 

In a letter  to Lucy Powell, the union said any 'financial benefit' should 'be used to support the school support staff workforce, including protecting support staff jobs and hours, rather than being diverted exclusively towards meeting the costs of teachers' pay settlements'. 

The Department for Education this week announced a £500 million surplus in the pension fund teaching assistants, catering staff, school caretakers and other workers pay into would be used to fund a pay rise for teachers. 

School support staff are the lowest paid workers in education, with many tied to term time only contracts leaving their annual salary as low as £12,000 per year. 

Stacey Booth, GMB National Officer, said: 

It's shameful money from school support staff pensions is being hoovered up to cover for teachers' pay. 

Teaching assistants, catering staff, caretakers, admins staff and others are the lowest paid people in education – struggling to get by on term time only contracts and poverty pay. 

Any surplus in their pension scheme surely must go to them help ease their lot, not go to better paid colleagues. 

GMB has called on the education secretary to ensure that from now on, any surplus from school support staff pensions must only be used in consultation with them – and used to help make their lives easier.

 From Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the NEU

 

SCHOOL PAY & PENSIONS — A SIMPLE EXPLAINER 

 

There’s been a lot of confusion about the LGPS pension saving, so here’s what has actually happened.

 

What is the LGPS saving? The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) covers many school support staff. Every three years, the scheme is reviewed to work out how much employers need to contribute. Because investment returns have been stronger than expected, employers now need to contribute less. On average, employer contributions have fallen by 4.9 percentage points. 

 

This does NOT reduce the pension support staff will receive when they retire. It changes what the employer has to pay into the scheme. 

 

So what does this have to do with school funding? Lower employer pension contributions mean lower costs for schools. Normally, the Department for Education could take those lower costs into account when calculating how much funding schools need in future. That could mean less additional funding being provided to schools. The government has now said it will not use this particular LGPS saving to reduce next year's funding assessment. 

 

How much money are we talking about? The government has announced: • £700 million in July towards this year's pay awards • £500 million announced in September from the pension saving • The government says these together fully fund this year's 3.5% teacher pay rise • Schools are expected to be £1.6 billion better off next year than expected over the summer. 

 

But there is an important difference This announcement applies to the LGPS saving for support staff. There is also a much larger saving expected from teachers' own pension contributions in April 2027. The government has said that saving will be clawed back through reductions in school funding. 

So: 

LGPS saving for support staff → government says it will NOT claw it back. Teachers' pension saving from April 2027 → government says it WILL claw it back. 

 

The bottom line The issue isn't about taking money out of someone's pension. It's about how the government treats the saving in school funding. For this year's LGPS saving, the government has decided to leave that saving with schools rather than use it to reduce its assessment of future funding needs. That's why the £500 million announcement matters