Teachers living in sheds, cars and using food banks as demand for grants rises, charity warns

Teachers are living in sheds, cars and eating out of food banks as the number of professionals seeking vital financial support has surged, a charity has warned.

Hundreds of teachers and support staff are at risk of losing their home or being unable to pay rent, according to the Education Support Partnership, a charity that provides emergency grants.

The number of teachers applying for cash handouts for housing from the charity rose by 67 per cent between 2016 and 2018 – and the charity expects applications to reach a record high this year.

Education unions say a real-terms decline in teachers’ pay, at a time when housing and childcare costs have soared, is to blame for the rising number of education professionals seeking help.

One teacher, who recently applied for financial support for a rental deposit from the charity, lived in a friend’s shed with her daughter as she could not find anywhere affordable to live.

Figures provided to The Independent show the charity received 832 applications for housing grants from teachers in 2018, compared to 661 in 2017 and 498 in 2016.

The figures available for this year so far – received in the nine months between January and September – already stand at 648.

Sharon, who moved from Spain to start a temporary job at a school in Dorset, did not have the money for a deposit so she lived in her friend’s shed, with her 10-year-old daughter, for seven months.

“I had no money and no savings and had no furniture. I didn’t have a deposit to rent. It was horrendous,” she told The Independent.

She added: “It was cold. I couldn’t cook for myself and washing was quite difficult. Just having to do basic things was really challenging.

“My daughter had Sats exams going on at the time. It was a nightmare. I am surprised she passed anything because she was so stressed.

“We just didn’t have any space from each other. There was no room for a desk.”

“It caused a great deal of anxiety and I felt like I had completely failed as a mother,” she added.

The charity has also noted a rise in the number of teachers seeking help for school uniforms for their own children and being forced to use food banks.

One full-time teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Independent that she had to use a food bank ten times in the past year in order to feed her two children.

The mother has struggled to make ends meet amid rising childcare costs – and this term she has had to send her four-year-old daughter to school without a uniform as she cannot afford it.

The teacher, who received financial help from the charity, said: “At school, in the run-up to Christmas, we had donations for food banks where everybody was asked to bring something in each day and I was watching what the kids were bringing in and thinking that could be my Christmas food bank voucher.

“It was quite depressing to think I have children here who are now donating stuff that I am going to end up eating. It just feels wrong.”

Richard Faulkner, head of policy at Education Support Partnership, said he has read “very distressing” applications from teachers “living in their car” and surviving on just £15 a week once rent and bills are paid.

“People don’t expect teachers to be homeless and they don’t expect them to be getting the majority of their food from food banks. This is the reality we are seeing on an increasingly frequent basis,” he said.

The majority of applications come from teachers working in education in the southeast of England – and low salaries of teachers play a part in a number of cases, Mr Faulkner added.

More teachers could quit the profession in areas where living costs are so high unless urgent action is taken by the government, the charity has warned.

Tom, a primary school teacher in east London, said he has considered leaving teaching as his salary does not match high living costs.

The single parent, who was given a grant to help move to a larger rented property with his children, said he is living “on the breadline”.

He added: “Renting is £15,000 a year for a pokey little two-bed flat in a not particularly nice part of London.

“There hasn’t really been a pay rise. I do after-school clubs which pay a little bit and I work on Saturdays, as we do a Saturday school, to make ends meet.

“It is not a well-paid job and in a city that is cripplingly expensive.”

Every year around half of the staff at his school leave amid high housing costs and low pay, he said.

“I have considered completely relocating. I think there is such a problem in London that if things continue there will be a real narrowing of the demographics of teachers.

“I am 38 and I am one of the oldest teachers in the school because as soon as people have families they move because they can’t afford it,” he added.

Colleagues at his school have also given him clothes from the lost property so his children have uniforms, he said.

Kim Knappett, joint president of the National Education Union (NEU), has heard of more reports of teachers and school staff using food banks in the past twelve months.

The science teacher, who volunteers at a food bank in London, said: “I have had to step out the back when members of staff from schools I know come in to collect parcels and you know that is incredibly embarrassing for someone who is a teacher or a member of support staff.

“The fact you can’t provide food for your children and yet you are working full time just doesn’t compute in the 21st century.”

On the reasons for the rise, Ms Knappett added: “The housing costs are going up and up. People are trying to buy school uniforms, clothes and food from a diminishing pot of leftover money.

“Our teacher salaries are definitely at least 15 per cent less in real terms than they were in 2010.”

A study from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) last month concluded that teachers’ pay in the UK is below the international average.

Statutory salaries for teachers in England and Scotland – with 15 years of experience and the most common qualification – have not recovered to “pre-Great Recession highs,” the report found.

The minimum salary for teachers in England and Wales, excluding London, is £23,720, while the minimum for Inner London is £29,664.

The government has recently pledged to increase salaries for new teachers to £30,000 by 2022-23.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “The increase would make starting salaries for teachers among the most competitive in the graduate labour market, building on the above-inflation average pay increases for teachers in the last two years.”