Car salary sacrifice schemes could improve teacher retention

Better employee benefits such as car salary sacrifice schemes could improve teacher retention, according to a survey.

The research, conducted in September and October, includes the feedback of 330 teachers and highlights a number of issues that the Department for Education could consider to resolve the teacher retention and recruitment issue.

It found:

• To prevent an exodus from teaching, teachers indicated three factors above all else the Government need to address: workload, employee benefits and pay
• Nearly six in 10 (58.41%) teachers say they do not have employee benefits
• Less than one in 10 (9%) of teachers say they are satisfied with their current employee benefits package

One such benefit is salary sacrifice car schemes - teachers are the only professional group in the country excluded from accessing them.

The survey also found:

• More than nine in 10 (92%) teachers say they would consider getting a salary sacrifice car if they were allowed access
• More than nine in 10 teachers drive to work, with around four in 10 saying their commute was longer than 30 minutes
• Half of teachers have cars that are six or more years old

David Hosking, chief executive of Tusker, said: “This is an easy win for the Government as they seek to address the teacher retention challenge.

"Thousands of teachers from around the country have shown their dismay to us that they are excluded from salary sacrifice car schemes.

“More than 400,000 teachers are excluded from one of the UK’s most popular employee benefits – they allow people to make huge annual savings and who better to grant access to these schemes than teachers – the lifeblood of our society.”