NAHT applauds the contribution of school leaders, teachers and other public service workers, acknowledging the challenging nature of their work and their entitlement to a decent quality of life in retirement.

Yet for the last decade, teachers’ and school leaders’ pay has fallen in real terms every year. At the same time, the value and benefit of the pension schemes have been undermined, meaning that teachers and leaders have had to pay more for their pensions but will receive less benefit from them.

We know that the overall reward package does have an important impact, and the erosion of this is clearly adding to the recruitment and retention crisis facing the sector today.

NAHT remains opposed to any attempts to make school leaders work longer, pay more and get less. This includes:

• Opposition to the acceleration of further increases to the state pension age, and the linking of state pension age to the teachers’ pension schemes (TPS) and the local government pension scheme (LGPS)
• Opposition to tiering arrangements in the teachers’ pension scheme contributions that disadvantage school leaders and to increases that are only applied to leadership contributions.

Our key areas of focus

NAHT currently has four key areas of focus it is working on in relation to members’ pensions across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Crown dependencies:

1. age discrimination in public sector pensions
2. ill-health retirements and long covid
3. cost control mechanism and future scheme valuations 
4. independent schools and the TPS.

You can find out further detail on work underway in specific locations by contacting your local branches and/or policy@naht.org.uk

Information on our latest funding campaigning, which includes our work to ensure sufficient long-term funding to cover any increases to employer pension costs, can be found here.

Advice and guidance

You can access specific support and guidance for school leaders’ pensions here. 

Related news

• Changes to ensure equality in survivor benefit provisions in the teachers' pension scheme now agreed
• The government responds to the consultation on arrangements to rectify the age discrimination in public sector pension schemes in Northern Ireland
• The government responds to the consultation on arrangements to rectify the age discrimination in public sector pension schemes in England and Wales
• The Treasury revokes exit payment legislation