Terms and conditions for mathematics early-career payments.

Overview

The mathematics early-career payments pilot is available to teachers starting their initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2018 to 2019, or 2019 to 2020 academic year. This is in addition to the £20,000 bursary or £22,000 scholarship during ITT.

All eligible teachers will receive early-career payments of £5,000 each in their third and fifth year of teaching. Those who are teaching in one of the listed local authorities will receive an uplift of an additional £2,500 to each of these payments, bringing the total to £7,500.

This guidance explains who is eligible and how schools can apply for their staff.

Eligibility criteria

Teachers must meet the training, employment, and subject and performance criteria.

Training eligibility criteria

Teachers will be eligible if they started a non-salaried postgraduate ITT course in mathematics in the 2018 to 2019, or 2019 to 2020 academic year.Teachers will need to have received an ITT bursary or scholarship during the ITT course.

Employment eligibility criteria

Teachers with qualified teacher status must be employed in a state-funded school in England in either a:

  • local-authority-maintained secondary school (including middle-deemed secondary)
  • local-authority-maintained or non-maintained special school
  • secondary academy or free school

Teachers must have:

  • proof of employment at the time of the application
  • continuous employment in a state-funded school between completing their teacher training and the first Monday in September of each payment year

Some breaks in normal employment still count towards a continuous employment period. These are:

  • sickness, maternity, paternity, parental or adoption leave
  • annual leave
  • time between unfair dismissal and an employee being reinstated
  • military service, for example with a reserve force
  • temporary lay-offs

Part-time teachers are eligible for the same early-career payment amounts as full-time teachers, providing they meet the eligibility criteria.

Supply teachers are eligible if their contract is for at least one term and they are not employed by private agencies.

Teachers in private schools and sixth-form colleges are not eligible.

Subject and performance eligibility criteria

Teachers must:

  • have at least 50% of their contracted hours allocated to teaching mathematics at the time of the application
  • meet the teachers’ standards as of the first Monday in September of each payment year

If a teacher fails to meet the teachers’ standards, they will not fulfil the performance eligibility criteria. If a teacher subsequently meets the teachers’ standards during the payment year, they will become eligible for the payment.

Uplifted payment criteria

Teachers must meet all of the above criteria and teach in a school located in one of the following local authorities to receive larger payments of £7,500:

  • Barnsley
  • Blackpool
  • Bracknell Forest
  • Bradford
  • Coventry
  • Derby
  • Doncaster
  • Dudley
  • East Riding of Yorkshire
  • Halton
  • Isle of Wight
  • Kingston Upon Hull, City of
  • Kirklees
  • Knowsley
  • Leicester
  • Liverpool
  • Luton
  • Middlesbrough
  • Milton Keynes
  • North Lincolnshire
  • Northumberland
  • Nottingham
  • Oldham
  • Peterborough
  • Portsmouth
  • Reading
  • Rochdale
  • Salford
  • Sandwell
  • Sefton
  • Sheffield
  • St. Helens
  • Stoke-on-Trent
  • Swindon
  • Tameside
  • Telford and Wrekin
  • Walsall
  • Warrington
  • Wolverhampton

Eligibility for an uplifted payment is dependent on a teacher’s employment in an eligible local authority at the time of application.

If the teacher has moved to a school in an eligible local authority at any point before an early-career payment is made, they will be eligible for the uplifted payment.

Apply for mathematics early-career payments

Teachers must ensure their school is aware that the school needs to make an application on the teacher’s behalf.

Schools:

  • must confirm that the teacher meets all the criteria listed
  • must complete and return the application during the specified time
  • can only submit a late application if a teacher who initially did not meet the performance criteria later becomes eligible during that academic year

Schools must apply on behalf of the teacher in the following academic years:

For teachers starting ITT in the 2018 to 2019 academic year:

  • 2021 to 2022 for the third year payments
  • 2023 to 2024 for the fifth year payments

For teachers starting ITT in the 2019 to 2020 academic year:

  • 2022 to 2023 for the third year payments
  • 2024 to 2025 for the fifth year payments

Mathematics early-career payments are:

  • not part of a teacher’s pay and should not be treated as pensionable payments
  • subject to income tax and National Insurance (NI); DfE will pay this cost to HMRC. Neither the teacher nor the employing school will need to pay income tax or NI contributions on the early-career payments

We will publish details of the application process in due course and prior to the first payment year.

Contact

If you have any questions about the mathematics early-career payments, please email us on [email protected].

Published 30 April 2018
Last updated 27 September 2018 + show all updates

  1. Information added for teachers starting their ITT training in the 2019 to 2020 academic year.
  2. First published.

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