Although salary sacrifice for cars is one of the fastest growing employee benefits in the UK right now, teaching is the only profession that is unfairly excluded from taking advantage of it because of an unintended interpretation of their terms and conditions.

While similar benefits, such as cycle to work schemes, are specified in the Government’s School Teacher Pay and Conditions Document (STCPD) for teachers in England and Wales, salary sacrifice car schemes have been omitted.

Tusker has been engaging with MPs and Teachers’ Unions on behalf of the fleet industry to have this anomaly corrected. Over 1,200 teachers across England and Wales have signed an online petition and 22 MPs from the three main Westminster parties have signed an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons.

Tusker recently held a campaign event in Parliament to call for a change to this national rule, with sixteen MPs from all the main parties having attended to show their support.

David Hosking, chief executive officer for Tusker, commented: “Teachers have told us that it is extremely unfair that they are excluded from salary sacrifice car schemes and we agree. To improve teacher retention and raise the status of the teaching profession, teachers need to be treated as equals. We will continue to work with teaching unions and MPs to have this rule changed to end the exclusion of teachers from this popular employee benefit.

“Teachers should have access to the same cost savings as other professions. They should be given the opportunity to save around £1300 a year on their motoring costs along with nurses, accountants, solicitors and sales executives. At times when wages in teaching are stagnating, this significant annual saving could be a huge improvement to many teachers’ personal finances.”