§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will relax the rules that prevent teachers who have taken retirement on the
160W
School achievement awards by LEA and type of school LEA Nursery Primary PRU Secondary Special Barking and Dagenham — 19 — 4 1 Barnet 2 36 1 7 — Barnsley — 25 — 5 — Bath and North East Somerset — 26 — 5 3 Bedfordshire — 39 — 13 1 grounds of ill health from undertaking any employment in teaching, without forfeiting their entitlement to pension benefits. [154668]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisIll-health benefits are now granted on the basis that a teacher is permanently unfit to teach, and include compensation in the form of enhancement of service for the loss of future working years. It would therefore be inappropriate to allow teachers in receipt of an ill-health retirement pension to retain that benefit if they are deemed fit to return to the classroom.
The numbers of teachers who retire on ill-health grounds have reduced by 50 per cent. since 1997. Occupational Health Guidance which has been issued recently, as part of the Healthy Schools Programme, outlines the value and importance of a fit and healthy teaching workforce and the subsequent benefits to both teachers and the pupils they teach.