Early-career payments for teachers

When to apply and payments

You need to apply at different times depending on:

• the subject you teach
• in which academic year your initial teacher training (ITT) course started (postgraduate) or finished (undergraduate)

TeachersYou can apply from September in the 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 academic years.

You may also be entitled to an uplift payment.

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Early career payment amounts depend on when your ITT course started (postgraduate) or finished (undergraduate)

Subject	ITT course start or finish	Academic years in which to apply	Amount
MathsMathematics	2018 to 2019	2023	£5,000
MathsMathematics	2019 to 2020	2024	£5,000
MathsMathematics	2020 to 2021	2023 and 2024	£2,000
Physics	2020 to 2021	2023 and 2024	£2,000
Chemistry	2020 to 2021	2023 and 2024	£2,000
Languages	2020 to 2021	2023 and 2024	£2,000

The academic year runs from 1 September to 31 August.

Eligibility criteria for teachers

You must meet the eligibility criteria to be able to claim any additional payments.

BetweenFrom 25 September and2023 March,to 31 March 2024, you will be able to answer some questions to find out what additional payments you are eligible to claim. Even if you are eligible to claim more than one type of additional payment, you will only be able to claim one additionalsuch payment per academic year.

Learn more about what additional payments are available.

Qualifications

You will be eligible if you started a postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) course or completed an undergraduate ITT course in the following subjects and academic years:

• mathematics in the 2018 to 2019, 2019 to 20202020, or 2020 to 2021 academic year
• physics, chemistry and languages in the 2020 to 2021 academic year

Postgraduate ITT includes:

• university-led and school-led coursescourses, likesuch as the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE)
• School Direct ITT
• School Centred ITT (SCITT)
• Teach First
• Postgraduate teaching apprenticeship

Undergraduate ITT includes:

• Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with qualified teacher status (QTS)
• Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree with QTS

If you were awarded QTS through assessment only or overseas recognition in academicthe years 2018 to 2019, 2019 to 2020, or 2020 to 2021,2021 academic years, you will also be eligible.

A list of eligible ITT codes (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 13.7 KB) is available.

QTS and QTLS

You must have either :either:

• QTS
• qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS) status and membership of the Society for Education and Training (SET)

Employment

You must be employed as a teacher in a state-funded secondary school (or middle-deemed secondary school) in England when you apply for the payment. State-fundedThese secondary schools include:

• local authority-maintained secondary schools
• academies, free schools or multi-academy trusts
• speciallocal-authority-maintained schoolsor (localnon-maintained authority-maintainedspecial or non-maintained)schools

ThisYou includesmust middle-deemed secondary schools.have:

You must:

• have started your induction before applying for your first early-career payment
• have completed your induction before applying for subsequent early-career payments (or completed at least one year of your induction forif thoseyou that completed theiryour ITT in the 2020 to 2021 academic year)
• have spent at least 50% of your contracted hours allocated to teaching one or more of the eligible subjects at the time of the application

Supply, privateindependent school and sixth-form college teachers

If you are a supply teacher, you must:

• be employed directly by the school to be eligible
• have been working for at least one term before applying

YouIf cannotyou comeare fromemployed by a private agency.

Ifsupply-teaching youagency or teach in aan privateindependent school or sixth-form college, you are not eligible.

Part-time teachers

If you are a part-time teacher, you are eligible for the same early-career payment amounts as a full-time teachers.teacher.

You still need to meet theall sameof the eligibility criteria in full.criteria.

Breaks in teaching

You are allowed to have some breaks in your normal employmentemployment. whichThese include:

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

Performance

You must not currently be subject to any:

• formal performance measures as a result of continuous poor teaching standards
• disciplinary action

Local authorities with uplift payments

You will need to teachbe teaching in an uplift area at the time you apply to be eligible for an uplift payment.

All payments of £5,000 increase to £7,500 in an uplift payment area.

All payments of £2,000 increase to £3,000 in an uplift payment area.

The local authorities are:

• 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.St Helens
• Stoke-on-Trent
• Swindon
• Tameside
• Telford and Wrekin
• Walsall
• Warrington
• Wolverhampton

Payments and deductions

Number of payments

The Department for Education (DfE) makes the payment in one lump sum.

You can only claim one additional payment in each academic year, even if you are eligible for more than one type of additional payment.

For example, if you are eligible for both the levelling up premium and early-career paymentspayments, you can only claim one of these additional payments in the same academic year.

However, if you are eligible to claim back your student loan repayments, you will be able to claim this as well as a levelling up premium payment or early-career payment.

Taxable income and National Insurance

TheDfE Department for Education will pay Income Tax up to the basic rate (currentlyand incomeNational ofInsurance £12,571for tothe £50,270,payment taxedon atyour abehalf. The basic rate of 20%)tax andis Nationalcurrently Insurancebased foron thean paymentannual onincome yourof behalf.

If£12,571 youto become£50,270, ortaxed alreadyat are a higher rate taxpayer,of any20%.

You additionalwill need to pay any Income Tax andover Nationalthe Insurancehigher contributionsrate forthrough thisPAYE paymentif overyou thebecome higheror ratealready willare remaina yourhigher responsibility.rate taxpayer. The higher rate is currently an income of £50,271 to £125,140, taxed at a rate of 40%.

TheYou Departmentcan forreview Education is not liable to reimburse tax at the higher rate.

Review the tax bands on Income Tax rates and personal allowancesallowances..

The payment is not part of your salary from your employer. You, your employer,employer or the government will not contribute to your pension as part of this payment.

You should consider any other benefits or tax credits that could be affected if you claim this payment.benefit, such as the High Income Child Benefit Charge or Marriage Allowance.

Your payment, along with the Income Tax and National Insurance contributions paid on your behalf, will all count towards your income.

Student loan deductions

If you have a student loanloan, then a deduction will go towards repaying yourit. student loan. This is taken off your payment automatically.

Contact

IfFor you have any questionsqueries about the early-career payments, email earlycareerteacherpayments@digital.education.gov.uk.