It's bad timing for people who started teaching at the same time as me. We all took
out large loans from the Student Loans Company or from banks to pay for our training.
Sure, fees were paid for, but living expenses weren't. I even tried having a part-time
job, but the PGCE was so demanding that I only lasted two weeks as a Saturday assistant
before needing my Saturday back to make worksheets and research assignments.
Last month we were supposed to feel the benefits of our little pay rise. Well we would have, I suppose, if the rise in National Insurance contributions hadn't negated the pay rise. But I actually find myself worse off than I was the month before. The farcical collection arrangements of the Student Loans Company means that for the third or fourth time I have "started" to pay back my PGCE loan directly from my wages. It's farcical because the SLC never actually seems to be sure how much you should be paying back, and how much you have paid back. There have been cases of people paying back far more than they should have, but having to wait until the end of the next tax year before the proper calculations can be made and they can be reimbursed for their overpayments.
This hasn't happened to me, because at the present rate I have a good few months of payments left to make. This is in addition to the loans I took out as an undergraduate, payable under a different system of direct debits once a certain salary is achieved. It may be of no surprise to fellow teachers that technically, I have never yet reached the earning ceiling where I would be obliged to pay back the loan, but I'm paying it back anyway.
Had I waited two or three years to enter the teaching profession, I would be richer than I am today. Firstly, there are training bursaries to help you survive the PGCE year. Then came the designation of my subject as a shortage subject, meaning that more money was dispensed amongst the needy. Golden hellos are another scheme to make me jealous, and finally the latest initiative, that new teachers will have all their student loans paid off if they remain teaching for a certain number of years.
What this means is that new and nearly new entrants to the profession are taking home more
money each month than me. Which doesn't seem fair. And which makes me angry and begrudging
and all kinds of negative emotions that shouldn't exist. And which makes me want to go and
shout at the government and demand that all my loans are paid off too. After all, I chose
teaching and certainly not for the money. I chose it because I wanted to do it and not because
I saw it as a quick way to pay off my student loans, or get paid to get another qualification.
I feel like I've been fleeced, and by god it makes me angry and bitter!
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