Ministers have been told any imminent national insurance hikes must be fully funded for schools, as some trusts put aside cash just in case it isn’t.
Reports this week suggested the government will increase NI contributions for employers when it presents its first budget at the end of this month.
The BBC said this could be done by charging NI on an employer’s pension contributions, currently exempt.
Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said it was “incumbent on the chancellor to protect schools and other public services from a further wave of cuts”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves “should reimburse public sector employers for additional costs, and at the same time use money raised from the private sector to increase funding for public services”, he said.
Damien McNulty, the national salaries official at the NASUWT, said any unfunded additional costs “would exacerbate a school funding system that is already fully stretched”.
Bellevue Education Trust has already begun making “contingencies” for unfunded rises.
Mark Greatrex, its chief executive, said it was “scenario planning” a 1.25 per cent rise, equivalent to tens of thousands of pounds.
“We’re adding that into our assumptions for our individual school budgetary arrangements. If schools have got the reserves in their individual budgets then that’s fine, but if they don’t … or if their in-year budget is quite close, they might have to find some adjustments to be able to afford this increase.”
Unfunded rise would prompt cuts
Bev Matthews, the chief executive of the Minerva Learning Trust, said if it was unfunded the trust would have to cut funding for “curriculum resources, trips, visits, all the additional services we’ve put in place to address issues with behaviour and attendance.
“It minimises what we can do in all these areas. It‘s basically money away from additional services for children.”
The government has previously funded similar rises, covering rises in employer pension contributions and the abandoned health and social care levy.
But this was just for state schools, meaning private schools may not be shielded from any rise – which would also come as VAT is whacked on to their fees.
David Woodgate, the chief executive of the Independent Schools’ Bursars Association, said it would be a “further tax that schools would have no choice but to pass on to parents”.
When quizzed about NI reports this week, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said she would not “engage in speculation”, but “recognised the pressures that have been there in recent years.”
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