Closed petition Allow supply teachers to pay into the 'Teachers' Pension'.

Closed on 26 September 2018

Supply teachers cannot pay into the Teachers' Pension. If you are contracted for 2 hours a week you can opt-in, but as a supply teacher working 5 days a week you can't. Why? Because supply agencies don't employ us, so can't pay the employer's contribution. The ethics of agencies are another debate.

Supply teachers used to be employed by LEAs. They were paid to scale, had pay progression and a pension. Successive governments have turned a blind eye to agencies taking this role where supply teachers are not paid to scale, have no pay progression and have no pension. A supply teacher will earn £16000 a year if they work every school day (the agencies having got £29,250 for that teacher). Some things we have to accept: the government signing our pension away, we shouldn't have to.