Public sector pensioners have been raided by the Labour Government to pay for teachers’ salary increases, a leading union has claimed.
Ministers have redirected savings from a 4.9 per cent reduction in school support staff pension contributions to cover a £500million pay increase for teachers, prompting fury from the GMB Union, which branded the decision “disgusting”.
GMB, which represents more than 100,000 support staff across the country’s schools, argues that education’s lowest-paid workers are being made to subsidise salary increases for their colleagues.
The union is meeting Education Secretary Lucy Powell today to raise its objections to the policy with Stacey Booth, GMB’s National Officer, condemned the Government’s approach.
Labour has been accused of raiding pension pots to pay for teachers pay rises
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GETTY
She said: “School support staff are already paid a pittance for nurturing, feeding and helping to educate our children.
“To take money from their pensions to give others a pay rise is completely disgusting.”
Ms Booth directed her anger squarely at ministers, stating: “Ministers should be ashamed of themselves – if they can’t fund a pay rise they should have the guts to admit it rather than stealing the money of others.”
She added: “Meanwhile anyone who celebrates a pay rise that takes money away from the poorest paid group in education is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and should take a long hard look at themselves.”
Gary Smith, the General Secretary of the GMB Union, has previously said ‘Reform are no friends of workers’
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GETTYTeachers cited the increased pressure of poor behaviour and demanding expectations to deliver | GETTY
The teacher pay increase of 3.5 per cent was confirmed by ministers in July, taking effect from this month.
Recently, the National Education Union (NEU) lobbied hard for the rise to be fully funded by the Government, even threatening industrial action if schools were left to shoulder the burden.
Under the original arrangement, roughly half of the 2026-27 pay uplift was to be covered by additional Government funding, with schools expected to find the remaining 1.8 per cent themselves.
Previously, the NEU calculated that schools would need to scrape together approximately £460million from their own budgets to meet their share of the cost.
Lucy Powell was appointed Education Secretary | PA
In a letter sent on Wednesday to NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede, Ms Powell confirmed that schools would be permitted to use the savings generated by reduced pension contributions to cover the cost of pay rises.
Those savings are estimated at roughly £500million, closely matching the sum schools had been expected to find from their own resources.
Labour emphasised that the pay award itself has not changed, but maintained that the pension contribution adjustment makes the increase more manageable for schools “at a national level”.
The NEU welcomed the development enthusiastically, declaring it amounted to “a fully funded pay increase for all teachers throughout England” and describing it as “a significant step”.