Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons ill-health retirement pensions for teachers do not allow recipients to supplement their income by seeking work as private tutors.

Ill-health retirement pensions from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme are paid to members who are no longer able to teach due to illness or injury. Generally, these types of pensions are stopped only where there is evidence that a member no longer meets the eligibility requirements, for example because their health has improved. Work as a private tutor would not lead to automatic cessation of the pension, but because it is akin to teaching, may lead to a review of continued entitlement. Such reviews take account of the individual circumstances of the member, but ensure that only those who continue to meet the ill-health criteria receive pensions, which carry a high cost to the scheme.