Teaching assistants: how do you survive?

[Runaround50]

Calling all teaching assistants up and down the country.
How do you manage financially? Do you claim UC to make ends meet? Rely on partner/ husband to pay mortgage/ rent/ bills?

I've been a TA for 3 years and just cannot survive on the money.

Needless to say, I'm looking for a higher paid role in earnest.

I'm the second earner in my family. My wage pays for extras (going forward maybe just the energy increase). We could do without it if we had to. Don't think any of my colleagues are the primary earners in their households.

Three of my friends are / were TA's as above, they are the second earners and most did it to fit around kids. One is now studying or a PGCE, another has gone back to her original profession and the third is still a TA.

OK, TAs I know finances for:
L is a single mum, has UC. Struggling.
A is struggling. Her DH works for the council. They live in a really cheep place, and she walks an hour to and from work, and is talking about not being able to retire in 3 years, but working for as long as she can.
V has a husband with reasonable earnings but is really struggling now.
Me (not a TA, but paid on a lower pay scalethan TAs, with longer hours) has a DH who earns well - we previously lived on just his salary, but we are relieved right now I have an income given the crazy recent price increases.

A TA salary on its own isn't, imo, sufficient to live on. It needs to be a supplementary income.

TA is really best suited to second income earners in a household. The working pattern can be very well suited to a family with children at school, both working hours and holidays. So as well as being able to have the income, you can be there for your own children, and you can also save a lot of money on childcare, after school clubs, holiday clubs etc, that are a massive cost for two full time working parents outside of education. It requires little to no qualifications and can be a very rewarding job.

Anybody that tries to make a TA job provide entirely for even themselves living alone, let alone support a family would find it nigh on impossible.

Most TAs do the job because they want the low stress, not full time hours and term time only and because they can rely on their husbands financially. It's not a job where you can make a living, more a kind of pocket money one because you don't strictly speaking NEED to work to live.

I'd say at my school theres a really big divide and two distinct groups.

Women supported by partners who don't the job because they love it/it fits in with DC and for a bit of spending money.

People who rely on it as their job and are claiming benefits alongside. We had one who was using a food bank in the summer and I quietly arranged for her to have free school meals 😥

I should have added that my post was based on the colleagues I had when working as a TA. In my case I was able to do it for a year as I had just finished Uni and was getting experience for a year whilst living back at home and applying for PGCE.

I'm a sort of TA but in further education. I don't because a) I enjoy it and b) it means I need very little childcare (occasionally in termtime, never in the holidays as I get the same school holidays as my daughter)
But, and this is a massive but, the money is shockingly shit compared to the responsibility and workload, so I have a couple of other part time jobs that I fit around the day job. This means I'm actually the higher earner out of me and DH and work the same amount of hours as he does (40+).

The other TA equivalents where I work are claiming UC or rely on their husband for the majority of their household expenses.

Sorry, that should say I "do it" not I don't!

I do it because I like it, my particular area of expertise means no two days are the same and it’s fantastic to see my input help the children I work with. It’s very much a second household income, however.

We have lost at least 3 TAs over the past 5 years because they needed a job that would support them alone financially. Highly trained , experienced and a real loss to the school, but they had to go and work elsewhere to make ends meet. Those are just the ones I know well enough for them to talk about their financial situation with - others have left for different jobs and maybe for the same reason.

As an ex teacher, I do it part time for the low stress and a bit of extra money. So yes, a 2nd income.

Thanks all,
It's a shame as I like the role and it suits me as a person. No commute etc either. But the pay isn't sustainable.

Onwards and upwards !

My colleagues (im office based) are either second incomes, single parents of children with special needs who claim benefits, or a final people doing it for a year to see if they want to be a teacher.

You get the odd person who does morning club, TA, after school club and holiday clubs who just about make ends meet but its a long day.

Also the odd person who goes and does office cleaning after work or waitressing too.

Thanks again.
Yes, time to move on I think.
OH and I have been number crunching and really we need more cash coming in and I need higher pension contributions.

When I started as a TA, it meant I could contribute to the family finances but still be there four our children - childcare was unaffordable and we had no family who were willing to help out. Now, many years later, dh is retired and I am still working. It is only affordable now because we have no mortgage and our dcs have left home and are financially independent of us. We have several younger LSAs and TAs and frankly, I don't know how they manage on the salary. If my dcs were still dependant on us, I would be having to look for something else.

I don't think anyone could live on a TA salary. My son gets DLA, and as a part time TA I earned sufficiently little that I could claim carers allowance.

I've had to move on, I love TAing but knew it wouldn't be enough financially once DD was older as I'd lose my Tax Credits that top me up. I tried teaching (unqualified) for a bit hoping that would suit me as a logical step upwards but whilst I've always had good observations and my HoD is keen for me to train properly I just don't enjoy it. I'm moving on to a completely different line of work, but will volunteer with a local youth group as I really will miss working with children.

I am a full time ta and alone I couldn't manage. My husband brings home a decent wage so that's what makes things manageable. My good friend has left her ta job this summer to work in a bank as it is nearly £9000 more a year.

All the TAs I know except for three are second earners - their husbands bring in the primary income. The three others have additional jobs - one works in supermarket on Sundays, one teaches evening swimming lessons at the local pool and the other is a cleaner at the school in the evenings.
It’s an invaluable role for sure, but with the hours and holidays it is essential ‘part time’. You can’t expect to live off it independently.

I'm a second earner TA - there's no way I could survive on my wage alone. I'm in Scotland so the role is utterly undervalued and underpaid. I could actually earn more on a checkout (no offense at all to those who do) without the level of responsibility I take for all the children. I rely on my DH to pay the bills, and am actively looking for a better job, as are most of my colleagues. Which means my local authority will lose those of us who are highly qualified, highly experienced and well trained all for the sake of a few quid an hour more. We are striking up here because the wage is so poor, starting next month.

I am a TA and know alot who are currently looking to move on because of the low wage. Alot of Ta's in my school fell into the job many years ago when they were SAHM, so like myself most have a husband who earns well. I enjoy the role, don't have to worry about child care and like to have some of my own money. Like others have said, we will loose alot of talented TAs with the cost of living increases and rubbish wages

Not me but my step mum changed career to be z TA in later life. By then she'd earned enough to invest in property and had a big redundancy payout. Plus my dad had some investments and a decent job. So basically you need another income stream.

Tbh I rely on my husband who is well paid, and many TAs in my school are the same. One drives to work in a Tesla 😂
The ones who don’t have partners with good jobs are honestly a bit broke and top up their salary with benefits. The salary for TAs is ridiculously low, barely above minimum wage.

All the TAs I know are married or have second jobs. It’s not really a job suited to supporting yourself financially. It definitely needs to be better paid hourly for what is expected during those hours - but even then you only work what can be equated to part time really, it’s not a 9-5 job and the weeks off are quite extensive, provided you are not expected to work during them, which most TAs aren’t. I think if you are struggling financially then you need to be realistic and change jobs or get an additional job. Otherwise it’s like working part time and complaining you don’t have enough money. You can’t afford to work part time at the end of the day - unfortunate but tough.

I agree with this.