2k a year pay rise = £66 extra a month!

[missbunnyrabbit]

I'm a teacher and was so excited to go the next point on the scale. Checked my pay today, the first pay with my new salary approved on it, to see I get a grand total of £66 extra a month!

2k sounds like such a lot! But it really isn't after everything is taken off.

Am I being ungrateful?

There was another thread not so long ago from a teacher complaining about the deductions from salary. If iirc the pension deductions are quite hefty but well worth it for the future benefits.

How do your extra deductions breakdown, have you clicked into a higher tax rate?

Are you in the 40% tax bracket ? Even with that you should have £100 a month extra but I imagine the rest will be going on pension and NI

That's 60% deductions, what are they?

It's not just an extra £66 though.

It's also things like extra pension contributions and NI credits too. You don't see the entire benefit now, but you will see it long-term.

2k per year only works out to around £160 a month extra anyway - take off tax, pensions and NI and £66 sounds about right. I can see how it's disappointing written down, though!

What's pension benefits like though? Retirement age?

I'm only on M3, so 27,600ish.

Gross: 2472
NI: 201
Tax: 242
Student loan: 17
Pension (8.6%): 212

After all that I'm left with £66 more than I did before I got the pay rise. Actually it might be £68. Yay. I've been trying to work out if everything is correct so my brain has gone numb.

Sorry I meant 29,600 a year for M3...

2k for a higher rate tax payer (40% tax + 2% NIC) with a student loan (9%) means you take home 49% i.e. £980 per year or £81.67 per month.

Take off some additional money for pension contributions.

That's the maths and just how life is unfortunately.

At least it will come in handy for the increased energy bills we're facing for the next year or more.

I'm not a higher rate tax payer though I earn 29,600

I'm a teacher in Ireland and my deductions are huge but apart from PAYE and universal service charge, it all goes towards my pension. Hopefully it will be worth it in the long run.

It sucks doesn’t it. It always sounds great getting 2/3k extra till all the tax/NI and pension come off it.

One year after all the deductions the increase was exactly the same as our rental increase. Was pissed off that year.

There's your answer - you pay over £200 a month into your pension, another £200 to the taxman and another £200 for NI. That's £600 a month already gone.

@LampLighter414

2k for a higher rate tax payer (40% tax + 2% NIC) with a student loan (9%) means you take home 49% i.e. £980 per year or £81.67 per month.

Take off some additional money for pension contributions.

That's the maths and just how life is unfortunately.

At least it will come in handy for the increased energy bills we're facing for the next year or more.

Just seen your post OP. If you're not a higher rate taxpayer it should be income tax (20%), NICs (12%), student loan (9%), pension (8.6%). Total deductions 49.6% so you should be taking home around half of this increase in pay i.e. over £80 a month.

I would double check your pay slips or that the gross increase is indeed a full 2k.

It’s the pensions contributions. My pay rises leave me similarly deflated (public sector) but think of your pension as a giant piggy bank, building and building.

What’s your tax code?

It's £66 more than you would have

But yeah it's the pension

That doesn't sound right.

Are you sure its 2k gross?

It should be at least 100 a month extra

Is it for the full month? If it's the first rise to this new level you may not have the full month. Check next month as well.

I’d like to have £66 extra a month...

Sounds about right. Have been teaching for 12 years and every increment is approx that. It’s better than nothing I guess but feels like nothing doesn’t it!

Wait until you’re on UPS3 and you realise that you will never get paid any more. Ever. No matter how good you are at your job, the results, the responsibility etc. I don’t know of another profession where you reach a limit and get no further recognition on your performance. It’s depressing. They’d soon be onto you if you don’t perform though!

Are any other teachers worried that they won't make it to their pension though? I've got about 25 years left to go, which is a lot of years to get through.

Well at 54yo I have found out that teachers pensions are actually not that great.

Been teaching for 23 years. 9 years FT, 14 years PT. If I retire at 60 I will get 6k a year and yes our monthly pension contributions have gone up a lot over past 4 years.

Lots of young teachers dont bother now as they need that money for rent, and I kind of wish I hadn't bothered either now.

I relate to this! Found out I will be due a £5000 pay rise in a couple of years and it totals about 100 a month after all the deductions 🙄