The teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) and supplementary fund supports schools with the increase in employer contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme from September 2019.
Details of the September 2019 to March 2020 allocations can be found here. Schools received payment for this period in November 2019.
It is advised that all Schools verify whether they qualify for Supplementary Funding. Applications for Supplementary Funding must be submitted directly by schools to the ESFA by 17th January 2020. Schools can expect to receive any payments due for Supplementary Funding in March 2020.
Pension Supplementary Fund
The pension supplementary fund provides additional support alongside the teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG), for the cost to schools due to the increase in the employer contribution rate to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
Schools are eligible to apply for the pension supplementary fund if their grant allocation falls short of their actual pension cost increase by more than 0.05% of their overall budget for the period.
The following funding streams are included in the definition of ‘overall budget’:
- The budget given to a school by their local authority for the 2019-20 financial year, as published in the authority pro-forma tool (APT), following de-delegation
- School sixth form funding: 2019-20 academic year funding allocations
- teachers’ pay grant: 2019-20 financial year allocations
The ESFA are using actual pension costs from the November 2019 pay bill as an indicative month for applications to the supplementary fund.
The online application form for your school is pre-populated with your school’s pension grant allocation and your overall budget. The application form asks schools to enter their actual pension costs from their November 2019 pay bill. The ESFA will be conducting sample pay bill checks to confirm the accuracy of the information submitted.
Applying for the Supplementary Funding
The online form is accessed via the School’s DfE Sign-in account (the account used to upload the Census information.) Schools should already have an approver who can provide access to the online form to others within the School. However, if the School does not have an approver details on how to set this up can be found here.
If the School experiences technical issues when seeking access to the online form please refer to the DfE Sign-in help pages here.
Schools are required to input the actual pension costs from the November 2019 teachers’ pay bill (including supply teachers) but excluding contributions relating to any back pay paid in November for example staff increments or the September pay award.
Where no back pay was included in the November pay bill, schools can simply input the actual pension costs incurred in November.
Where back pay for the September pay award was included in the November 2019 teachers’ pay bill, schools are advised to compare the actual pension costs incurred in November with those incurred in December (having regard to any staffing changes there may have been in December or additional hours which may have been worked in November or December) in order to calculate the November costs.
If any other back pay (e.g staff increments) was included in the November 2019 teachers’ pay bill, schools should consider the value of the back pay and the associated employer contributions. This value should be deducted from the pension costs input into the online form. (Calculate 23.68% of the total amount of the basic pay relating to the back pay and deduct this from the figure input.)
Schools’ Choice can provide Oracle reports confirming the actual pension costs paid in November and December.
For further advice and clarification, please contact the Finance Helpline on 0345 6037 684