INCREMENTS

grass

Hi, My wife is a teacher and has been teaching for the past 11 years. She first taught in the UK when qualified and in year 2 started teaching in Ireland. When she starting teaching in Ireland she claim her first increment, so she is one year behind on her increment for the pat 11 years, can she claim back on the difference for the past 11 years, any info would be appreciated.

Equality

Many years ago I sorted this type of thing out for a half dozen foreign trained teaching pals. Your wife seems to have started work at about the same time, so my knowledge from then is probably useful to you.

Does she have four years of university ed, full time? If so, based on when you say she started work, she may be entitled to an increment for the fourth year of uni. Write to the Dept of Ed and ask for it, if relevant.

She will need to provide proof of any work abroad (get a letter of proof from the employer) and send it to the Dept. She can look for the increments in respect of the years worked.

She can also look for the back pay. The ladies I sorted it out for got the back pay plus increments.

There was a change in the rules recently, so I am not sure if the back pay is still payable.

Everrything she applies for must be granted or refused. If refused, they will quote the legislation under which they are refusing. You then check the legislation and see if it applies to your wife, based on when she started work. It is an incredibly complex area, because the rules change so often, so it means you spend hours reading the relevant legislation, but the payoff can be considerable. If you spend enough time on the legislation, you will be able to appeal any inaccurate decision.

grass

Hi Equality,

Thank you for your post. My wife did 4 years at university and also did her masters part time. She is waiting for a letter from the school in the Uk. How does she find out if she is eligible for an increment from University ?

Equality wrote: »

Many years ago I sorted this type of thing out for a half dozen foreign trained teaching pals. Your wife seems to have started work at about the same time, so my knowledge from then is probably useful to you.

Does she have four years of university ed, full time? If so, based on when you say she started work, she may be entitled to an increment for the fourth year of uni. Write to the Dept of Ed and ask for it, if relevant.

She will need to provide proof of any work abroad (get a letter of proof from the employer) and send it to the Dept. She can look for the increments in respect of the years worked.

She can also look for the back pay. The ladies I sorted it out for got the back pay plus increments.

There was a change in the rules recently, so I am not sure if the back pay is still payable.

Everrything she applies for must be granted or refused. If refused, they will quote the legislation under which they are refusing. You then check the legislation and see if it applies to your wife, based on when she started work. It is an incredibly complex area, because the rules change so often, so it means you spend hours reading the relevant legislation, but the payoff can be considerable. If you spend enough time on the legislation, you will be able to appeal any inaccurate decision.

Equality

She writes to the payroll section of the Dept of Ed, including the letter from the university stating that she did four years full time. She points out that she started work 11 years ago, and wants the additional credit for the fourth year of university study. I think this has been abolished for post 2011 people but she is pre 2011.

A lot of teachers have this increment, as quite a few in Ireland did a three year degree followed by an 18 month postgrad. That is four years in total.

What point of the incremental scale did she start on, do you know?

When did she get the masters? If it was this year, she can maybe apply for a partial refund of fees? If it was earlier, I presume she is getting the masters allowance instead of the degree allowance - you will see this on her payslip. If she went from a pass degree to an honours masters the difference is significant.

Basically you write to the Dept of Ed payroll section for all of these things.