Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the merits of providing additional funding to schools to offset the cost of (a) National Insurance and (b) occupational pension scheme contributions.

The employer contribution rate for the Teachers Pension Scheme can be seen at: https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/news/employers/2014/10/tiered-contributions-changes.aspx. This followed a valuation of the scheme to secure its sustainability in the long-term. From April 2016, when the single tier state pension is introduced, the employer National Insurance rate for teachers will increase to the standard rate of 13.8%. As we develop our proposals for funding in future years we are looking carefully at changes to schools’ costs, including schools with provision for children with special educational needs. We are committed to protecting schools funding, as we pledged in our manifesto. Throughout this Parliament, as pupil numbers increase, so too will the amount of money for our schools.