Supply Teacher Payslip Explained

The School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) governs the pay of teachers employed directly by maintained schools. It requires a qualified teacher to be paid at least the minimum of the main pay range for their experience. However, STPCD applies to the school as employer - when a private agency is the legal employer, STPCD does not bind it. An agency can pay below STPCD minimum rates, and many do, particularly for day-to-day supply cover. The result is that a supply teacher's actual daily rate can vary considerably depending on the route.

A local authority supply teacher pool places teachers directly with schools, with the LA acting as employer. This route generally follows STPCD and pays on the main pay range (M1 to M6) or, for experienced teachers, the upper pay range (UPS 1 to 3). The following are 2025/26 figures for England outside London (published by the STRB): MPS ran from approximately £31,650 at M1 to £43,685 at M6; UPS ran from roughly £45,646 to £49,084. These are 2025/26 STPCD figures - confirm current 2026/27 values against the latest STPCD published by the Department for Education. Those annual rates convert to a daily equivalent by dividing by 195 working days.

A private agency employs the teacher directly and places them in schools. The agency charges the school a higher daily rate and pays the teacher a lower rate, with the difference covering employer NI, agency profit margin and administration. STPCD minimum pay requirements do not apply to the agency as employer, so rates can be lower than LA pool rates, particularly for short-notice bookings. Always ask for a written statement of the daily rate and confirm how holiday pay is calculated before accepting a placement.

An umbrella company is used by some agencies as an alternative payment model. The umbrella becomes the worker's employer of record. The agency pays the umbrella a total assignment rate. The umbrella then deducts its own employer National Insurance, the Apprenticeship Levy and its margin from that rate before arriving at the supply teacher's gross pay. What appears as "gross pay" on the umbrella payslip is therefore lower than the assignment rate the school is paying - the difference is the employment costs the umbrella carries. This is legal but genuinely confusing, and supply teachers frequently believe they are being underpaid when in fact the deductions are the employer's costs passed through to them.

For a supply teacher on a plain LA pool or agency PAYE payslip, the structure is simple: a daily rate or weekly earnings in the payments block, PAYE tax, employee NI and, if eligible, a Teachers Pension Scheme or auto-enrolment deduction in the deductions block. The Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS) applies if the employer is an eligible TPS employer - LA pools and maintained schools qualify; private agencies do not automatically qualify.

An umbrella payslip works differently. At the top, it typically shows the assignment rate or contract value - the total amount the agency has paid the umbrella for your work. From this the umbrella deducts employer National Insurance at 15 percent on earnings above the secondary threshold (the rate rose from 13.8 percent to 15 percent in April 2025, and the secondary threshold fell to £5,000 a year at the same time), the Apprenticeship Levy at 0.5 percent of the assignment value above £15,000 a year, and the umbrella margin (typically £15 to £25 per week). The figure remaining after these deductions is your gross pay, against which your own PAYE tax and employee NI are calculated.

A worked umbrella payslip showing an assignment rate of £150 per day may produce a gross pay figure of around £125 to £130 after the employer costs are stripped out. Tax and NI are then calculated on that lower gross. Your take-home from a £150 daily rate through an umbrella is therefore meaningfully less than from a £150 daily rate on direct PAYE with the same employer NI costs handled separately. This is not fraud - it is the employment-cost-passthrough model - but it is important to understand.

Year-to-date figures on a supply payslip are only complete for that employer. If you have worked across LA pools, agencies and umbrella companies in the same tax year, you will have multiple sets of year-to-date figures from different employers. At year end, HMRC reconciles your total income and tax from all sources using your P60s from each employer.

The Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS) is a defined-benefit career-average scheme. Employee contributions are tiered by annual salary rate. The full set of 2025/26 tier bands (revised from April 2025) is: 7.4 percent on salary up to £34,872; 8.9 percent up to £46,943; 9.9 percent up to £55,660; 10.5 percent up to £73,768; 11.6 percent up to £100,590; and 12.0 percent above £100,591. These are 2025/26 figures and are subject to review - verify the current 2026/27 band thresholds at teacherspensions.co.uk before relying on them. Your payslip should show the TPS deduction as a named line if you are in a TPS-eligible employment. Confirm the tier against your annual salary rate, not just the amount paid in the current period.

For supply teachers, TPS membership is only available while the employer is an admitted TPS employer. Local authority pools and maintained schools are eligible; private agencies and umbrella companies are not. Every day worked outside a TPS-eligible employer is a day not building TPS pension. Short gaps in TPS membership - for example, a summer holiday between LA contracts - do not damage accrued rights, but longer periods with agency-only or umbrella work mean those weeks build no defined-benefit pension at all.

If you value TPS membership, request a supply placement through your LA pool or a school that employs you directly, even if the daily rate is marginally lower than an agency rate. The value of TPS membership typically outweighs a modest rate difference over a career. If you have left and rejoined TPS, contact Teachers Pensions to confirm that your service records are linked correctly - gaps and re-joins are a common source of errors in the TPS record.