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.

My step mum just retired but she had my dad's income and rent out 4 properties. Plus pension from a previous job.

It's becoming a later stage career for many now, when mortgage paid and no need for childcare costs

This tbh

In my secondary, we have a large team of TA’s - most of them are full time and earn circa. 19k-20k a year. HLTA’s earn circa 25-26k a year. I have to say these salaries have increased over the years drastically.
The part time TA’s we have are pretty much down to life choice and the fact that they don’t need to work full time.

I am a TA but I also get child tax credits which bumps the wage up. Once the tax credits go (apparently happening in 2024) I’ll have to get another job as I wouldn’t be able to survive financially.

These salaries are paid pro rata though, so are effectively much less as TAs don’t get paid for school holidays.
Plus in my large secondary school even “full time” TAs only work 5 or 5.5 hours a day (25 - 27.5 hours a week) so it’s not really full time. We don’t get paid lunch breaks.

Underpaid and sadly undervalued.
Various attempts over the years to raise status and wages which have come to nothing. The job was restructured about 10 years ago but not in favour of TAs.
Its quite telling how few men are in post.

@Twiglets1

In our local secondaries TAs work from 8:30-4:30. Definitely full days.

Agreed. Men only stay for a year and only do it as a first step towards a career in teaching.
Out department is over 95% female and most of us started as it fitted in well with childcare.

Ooh that’s unusual in my LA.
But surely you don’t get paid for school holidays as none of us do. Therefore the stated salary is pro rata as we only get paid for ( I think) 38 weeks a year.

@Twiglets1

The salary is pro rata over the 12 months but TAs are contracted for 37 hours a week.

Ok that’s different to where I live in the South. Most of our “full time “ TAs get paid for 25 hours a week 38 weeks of the year. It doesn’t add up to much money so our department is mainly middle aged/ middle class women who have better paid partners🙁

@Twiglets1

Oh right. Midlands here and 37 hours is the norm for 38/9 weeks of the year. Bit annoying as I still have to pay for the before and after school club for my own kids which makes it even more unviable financially. I get my wage topped up with tax credits. I do have a degree so I was thinking about teacher training but I’ve been off for life so I’m just thinking about my next steps.

*put off for life.

Same at my school. And they dont get a lunch either. It is a terrible job.

@ConnieTucker

Yes I used to have a WFH job and gave it up for a secondary TA post. Big mistake. I miss weeing when I like and actually eating a lunch and not just snacking on crap.

I am definitely going to get a new job soon. Just seeing the year out.

Our TA's are term time only 20k to 26k
actual salary term time only. It's not that bad a salary in the North East.

I know what you mean.
Ive got a degree too but seeing the shit some teachers have to put up with has put me off teaching as a career.

My dh is a TA. he has specialised a lot, so is in a specific school with specific student needs and also delivers set things which pay a supplement. I work ft too, and my wage has only recently surpassed his in the last couple of years. We have low costs (and obviously save on not having to pay for any holiday childcare).

He has done this for many years, and likely will for many more.

His salary alone wouldn't be enough for our whole family to live on, but it doesn't need to be as we have two working adults in the house (and 2 dc).

We don't get any benefits other than CB.

I am a TA and a lone parent.
It’s a double edged sword. I work in Secondary, 32 hrs pw, which I could not survive on without Tax credits, but likewise if I got a non term time only job the after school clubs/holiday care would also financially cripple me and I still probably couldn’t earn enough.

I was doing ok before the gas/electricity issues, but now with everything else it’s a bit of a problem.

I have just accepted a slightly better paid role in a school (not a TA post) but the more I make, the more my Tax credits go down, so it’s really difficult.

As much as I try there is a level of wages I can’t get above, if I try to better myself, I lose out somewhere along the line.

Also I am mid forties with children under 10, so my situation is a bit trickier as that child free time when my earnings could feasibly go up may not come until I am late 50s 🤦🏼‍♀️

Are you quite sure about that? Only it seems a very very well paid deal for the TAs - better than I’ve ever heard of tbh

I'm an LSA and this is the case for me and most people I work with. The others are semi-retired or are just out of uni and wanting to apply for a PGCE.

It isn't a wage I could live on as we live near London and have 2 dcs

I believe TAs in special schools are sometimes better paid. I work in a mainstream secondary and we are paid just above minimum wage only for 25 or 27.5 hours a week and only for 38 weeks a year ( salary divided by 12 though so we get the same amount each month).

I am the second earner and DH earns a good wage. It suits me with our autistic 4 year old and not having to use much childcare which would cost quite a bit with two primary school children. Wouldn't be able to do it without DH's wages. TAs are just not paid enough.

I worked as a TA in a special needs unit within a mainstream primary. We were paid slightly more than other TA's but our working conditions and contracts were changed and our wages reduced in line with mainstream.
It was a case of suck it up or leave. I left!

I can only afford to be a TA because my DP earns more than 4x my salary.