Commenting on a stop to the controversial proposals from United Learning Multi Academy Trust to give teachers the chance to opt-out of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) this September, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“NEU welcome the news that the DfE has acted to prevent United Learning from offering an alternative pension scheme to teachers.
“The plans were unpopular with NEU members in United Learning who were concerned that they would threaten the entire landscape of teacher pensions. We have been consistently clear with UL that the TPS is an excellent pension which all teachers should expect to receive as part of their remuneration.
“The solution to the teacher recruitment crisis or to teachers struggling to afford their pension contributions is not to offer a trade-off between pay and pensions. The solution is improving overall teacher pay - something for which the NEU has relentlessly campaigned. We remain open to working constructively with UL to explore other opportunities for improving their offer to teachers”.