EIM06257 - Employment income: scholarship income: miscellaneous awards: teacher training bursaries; teaching grants; golden hellos

Section 776 IT(TOI)A 2005

Teacher training bursaries and grants

Individuals who begin a post-graduate course in initial teacher training in England and Wales are eligible to receive a training bursary (in Wales, a training grant). The award is paid by the training provider and funded by the Department for Education (in Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government). This includes teacher training scholarships where those who receive the award are selected by an organisation outside of government. Payment does not depend on the successful completion of the course, or on the individual taking a job as a teacher.

The teacher training bursary (in Wales, training grant) is not chargeable to tax. The individuals who receive them are not employees. They are trainees, or post-graduate students, and the award is in the nature of an additional scholarship or bursary. There is more about contracts of training in the Employment Status Manual at ESM2620.

Golden hellos/teaching grants

Post-graduate teacher trainees in shortage subjects are eligible to receive a one-off payment when they successfully complete their induction year of teaching in England or Wales. The payment is called a golden hello in England, and a teaching grant in Wales.

Unlike the training bursaries and training grants described above, this payment is made only to people who actually take a teaching job in a shortage subject and remain employed in a teaching post in England or Wales. The payment is an inducement to enter employment. It is taxable as earnings from the teacher’s employment within Section 62 ITEPA 2003 (see EIM00700).