Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for informing schools of the arrangements for reimbursement of the increased contributions they are required to make for teachers pensions.

On 11 March 2024, the department announced an additional £1.1 billion in the 2024/25 financial year to support schools with the increased Teachers’ Pension Scheme employer contribution rate.

The £1.1 billion will mean over £920 million for mainstream schools and over £135 million for high needs settings. Additional funding will also be provided to local authorities in respect of centrally employed teachers.

This additional funding will be distributed via the new teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) 2024. Further details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-pension-employer-contribution-grant-2024-for-schools-high-needs-settings-and-local-authorities-2024-to-2025. To help with planning, the department has published a ready reckoner for mainstream schools and academies to estimate what their TPECG 24 allocation for 2024/25 will be. The ready reckoner can be found here: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F65f2cf0eff117048966159fc%2FTPECG_2024-25_Calculator.ods&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.

With the extra funding for pension contributions, overall school funding is rising by £2.9 billion in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24, which takes the total to £60.7 billion and the highest ever level in real terms per pupil.