The government is making “good progress” on recalculating teachers’ pensions, education minister Catherine McKinnell told MPs today.
Answering education questions in the House of Commons this afternoon, Ms McKinnell said that changes to the teacher pension entitlement have caused a “significant backlog in processing”.
This backlog is said to have affected thousands of teachers, especially those needing to know the value of their pension as part of divorce settlements.
Ms McKinnell said that “good progress is now being made”, adding that the Department for Education and the administrator Capita are “focused on speeding it [the processing] up”.
The Teachers’ Pensions company, which works with the government to provide the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, has previously said that the delay is due to new guidance.
“The complexity of the cases means that production of the guidance has taken some time and we’ve not been able to progress cases until this was provided,” it explained in a statement in June.
Concerns over ‘bureaucratic backlog’
The minister was responding to a question from Max Wilkinson, Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, who spoke of the issues impacting one of his constituents.
“My constituent is unable to finalise her divorce because of delays to the assessment of the teacher pension scheme,” Mr Wilkinson told Parliament.
“There are many others who are experiencing serious stress and unacceptable delays,” he continued, calling the delay a “bureaucratic backlog”.
Legal firm Leigh Day is investigating a potential group claim concerning delays for members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
The firm said on its website that the delays “have left thousands of current and former teachers waiting for a response, causing financial losses and emotional stress”.
Another claim by the firm, based on “discriminatory calculations” made in the TPS, was settled on behalf of over 400 teachers earlier this year, Tes understands.
Minister ‘committed’ to ending financial model of trust
Ms McKinnell also addressed concerns over the University of Brighton Academies Trust’s GAG-pooling policy.
Helena Dollimore, Labour MP for Hastings and Rye, told Parliament that the trust has been taking “a whopping 20 per cent of the government grant meant for our local schools and education”.
In response, Ms McKinnell said that Department for Education officials continue to work with the trust, and confirmed that the government is “committed to ending its current financial model” and “collaborating with school leaders on future budget setting”.
The education minister further stated that the government is more concerned about “standards” rather than “structures”, echoing previous comments.
Private schools ‘haven’t received’ VAT number needed for tax
Esther McVey, Conservative MP for Tatton, warned during education questions that independent schools in her constituency had not yet received their VAT number when registering for tax, despite the government’s tax on private school fees due to come in from January next year.
“Having met with private schools in and around Tatton, they have all told me that despite having applied for a VAT number, not one of them has received it,” Ms McVey said.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said that she would be “happy” to look into the issue Ms McVey raised.
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