NUT: Pensions increase is further cut to teachers’ wages
Commenting on the announcement by the Department for Education that they are increasing contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) for the second year running, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said:
“This increase in pension contributions is just a further cut in teachers’ wages by the Government.
“An experienced classroom teacher in England and Wales will now be paying an extra £59 a month in pension contributions compared to March 2012. This is at a time of frozen pay and rising prices. A further increase is planned in April 2014.
“These increases aren’t justified. The Government has shamefully decided to cancel the long-delayed 2008 actuarial valuation of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme so there is no objective evidence to justify these increases.
“Instead, the increases are intended to achieve savings for the Government as part of its public spending cuts. They are simply a tax on teachers made to pay for a recession we did not cause.
“The NUT will continue to campaign against attacks on the pay and pensions of our members. Unless these attacks cease, strike action is inevitable.”
END pr19-2013
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