§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what will be the level of savings to public funds arising from the proposed change in the regulations regarding teachers' early retirement. [11166]
§ Mrs. GillanI have been asked to reply.
If the proposed change goes ahead, employers' contributions to the teachers' superannuation scheme will be 7.2 per cent. of salary rather than 8.8 per cent. of salary. That will save public sector employers about £200 million a year. To offset that, employers will need to fund the direct costs of premature retirement. The cost of that will depend on the numbers of premature retirements that employers decide to award: at the illustrative levels of premature retirement that we have forecast, the extra cost to public sector employers of these direct costs would be about £30 million a year.