Levelling up premium payments for teachers

Payments you can claimPayment

The levelling up premium payment canranges befrom between £1,500 andto £3,000, for the 2023 to 2024 academic year, depending on the school you teach in.

TeachersYou can apply from September in the 2023 to 2024, 2024 to 2025 and 20242025 to 20252026 academic years.

EligibleFor 2023 to 2024, eligible teachers of the following subjects can claim a levelling up premium payment for teaching in eligible state-funded secondary schools:

• chemistry
• computing
• mathematics
• physics

Eligibility changes from September 2024

For academic years 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026, eligible school and college teachers will be able to claim a levelling up premium payment in the first 5 years of teaching:

• STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects
• certain technical shortage subjects

Up to £6,000 will be available in the 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 academic years.

We will publish eligibility criteria in spring 2024.

When to apply

Use the table to find out when you can apply for a levelling up premium payment.

For postgraduates,If you are a postgraduate, use the academic year when your initial teacher training (ITT) course started. ForIf undergraduates,you are an undergraduate, use the academic year when your ITT course finished.

ITT course start or finish	Academic year in which to apply
2018 to 2019	2023
2019 to 2020	2023 and 2024
2020 to 2021	20232023, 2024 and 20242025
2021 to 2022	20232023, 2024 and 20242025
2022 to 2023	20232023, 2024 and 20242025
2023 to 2024	2024 and 2025
2024 to 2025	2024 and 2025
2025 to 2026	2025

The academic year runs from 1 September to 31 August. Applications open in September of the year shown.

Eligibility criteria

You must meet the eligibility criteria to be able to claim any additional payments. The published criteria relates to the current claims window (2023 to 2024) and will be updated to reflect 2024 to 2025 eligibility.

From September,25 September 2023 to 31 March 2024, you will be able to answer some questions to find out what additional payments you are eligible to claim.

You willEven onlyif beyou ableare eligible to claim eithermore anthan early-careerone paymenttype orof levellingadditional uppayment, premiumyou paymentwill peronly academicbe year,able evento ifclaim youone aresuch eligiblepayment toper claimacademic for both payments.year.

Learn more about what additional payments are available.

School eligibility and payment amount

Levelling up premium payments willare be offered to teachers in schools identified as having a high need for teachers. If you teach in an eligible school in an education investment area, you will receive a higher payment.

List of eligible and non-eligible schools for levelling up premium payment (MS Excel SpreadsheetCSV, 363476 KB).

Methodology

We have produced a methodology document (PDF, 130 KB, 2 pages) which explains our funding approach.

Qualifications

To claim, you must have completed at least one of the following:

• an ITT course specialising in mathematics, physics, chemistry or computing
• a UK undergraduate or postgraduate degree related to mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing on the JACS 3.0 principal subject codes or with a relevant higher education classification of subjects (HECoS) code (ODS, 9.279.24 KB)
• an equivalent non-UK degree

If you were awarded qualified teacher status (QTS) through assessment only or overseas recognition in an eligible academic year, you will also be eligible.

QTS and QTLS

You must have either:

• QTS
• qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS) status and membership of the Society for Education and Training (SET)

Employment

You must be employed as a teacher in a state-funded secondary school (or middle-deemed secondary school) in England when you apply for the payment. State-funded secondary schools include:

• local authority-maintained secondary schools
• academies, free schools or multi-academy trusts
• speciallocal-authority-maintained schoolsor (localnon-maintained authority-maintainedspecial or non-maintained)schools

This includes middle-deemed secondary schools.

You must have spent at least 50% of your contracted hours allocated to teaching one or more of the eligible subjects at the time of the application.

Supply, privateindependent school and sixth-form college teachers

If you are a supply teacher, you must:

• be employed directly by the school
• have been working for at least one term before applying

YouIf cannotyou comeare fromemployed by a private agency.

Ifsupply-teaching youagency or teach in aan privateindependent school or sixth-form college, you are not eligible.

Part-time teachers

If you are a part-time teacher, you are eligible for the same levelling up premium payment amountsamount as a full-time teachers.teacher.

You still need to meet theall sameof the eligibility criteria in full.criteria.

Breaks in teaching

You are allowed to have some breaks in your normal employment,employment. whichThese include:

• sickness, maternity, paternity, parental or adoption leave
• annual leave
• time between unfair dismissal and an employee being reinstated
• military service -– for example, with a reserve force
• temporary lay-offs

Performance

You must not currently be subject to any:

• formal performance measures as a result of continuous poor teaching standards
• disciplinary action

Payments and deductions

Number of payments

The Department for Education (DfE) makes the payment in one lump sum.

You can only claim one additional payment in each academic year, even if you are eligible for more than one type of additional payment.

For example, if you are eligible for both the levelling up premium and early-career payments,payments, you can only claim one of these additional payments in the same academic year.

However, if you are eligible to claim back your student loan repayments, you will be able to claim thisthese as well as a levelling up premium payment or an early-career payment.

Taxable income and National Insurance

DfE will pay Income Tax up to the basic rate (currentlyand incomeNational ofInsurance £12,571for tothe £50,270,payment taxedon atyour abehalf. The basic rate of 20%)tax andis Nationalcurrently Insurancebased foron thean paymentannual onincome yourof behalf.

If£12,571 youto become£50,270, ortaxed alreadyat are a higher rate taxpayer,of any20%.

You additionalwill need to pay any Income Tax andover Nationalthe Insurancehigher contributionsrate forthrough thisPAYE paymentif overyou thebecome higheror ratealready willare remaina yourhigher responsibility.rate taxpayer. The higher rate is currently an income of £50,271 to £125,140, taxed at a rate of 40%.

DfEYou iscan notreview liable to reimburse tax at the higher rate.

Review the tax bands updated on Income Tax rates and personal allowances.

The payment is not part of your salary from your employer. You, your employer or the government will not make a contribution to your pension as part of this payment.

You should consider any other benefits or tax credits that could be affected if you claim this payment.payment, , such as the High Income Child Benefit Charge or Marriage Allowance.

Your payment, along with the Income Tax and National Insurance contributions paid on your behalf, will all count towards your income.

Student loan deductions

If you have a student loan you are currently paying off, a deduction will go towards repaying yourit. student loan. This is taken from your payment automatically.

Contact

IfFor you have any questionsqueries about the levelling up premium payments, email levellinguppremiumpayments@digital.education.gov.uk.