Suspending or ceasing the allowance

If your circumstances change depending on the situation you may be able to suspend your ACET payments and continue to hold the recognition, or cease your ACET recognition either as per the terms of the allowance. Please also read the ACET allowance information.

Please note when suspending or ceasing the ACET payments/recognition your salary will revert back to the step and grade maxima that you were on before you were awarded the ACET recognition, as per PTCA clauses 3.32.6 and 3.32.7.

Suspending

As an ACET recognised teacher you can suspend your payments for up to 12 months if you continue to be covered by the PTCA or an equivalent Individual Employment Agreement (IEA) for one or more of the following reasons:

• your employment status changes, for example, if you move to fixed term employment; and no longer are a permanent employee;
• you are temporarily assigned to a role which carries more than one permanent unit;
• your hours of employment are reduced to below a classroom teaching load of 0.8 FTTE for up to one term;
• you are undergoing competency or disciplinary processes.

In order to suspend your payments you will need to contact us in writing (email or post) to advise your situation.

Email: acet.recognition@education.govt.nz
Post: ACET Recognition, Ministry of Education, PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140
Phone: 0800 165 225

If you are not meeting the eligibility criteria for the payments the payroll system should pick this up and automatically suspend your payments. Please note in some instances this may not happen, and you will need to contact us to advise over your situation to avoid having to repay an overpayment of the allowance.

Re-instating the payments after suspension

If your allowance is suspended, it may be reinstated if the Ministry is satisfied that the reasons for the suspension no longer exist, and the suspension has been for less than 12 months. The Ministry will verify whether you meet the eligibility criteria for the payments to be reinstated and contact you in writing.

We ask that you contact us to advise when your situation has changed and you are again eligible for the payments, so we can undertake the necessary checks to make sure the payments are re-started as required.

Ceasing

Your allowance will cease altogether if:

• you voluntarily relinquish the allowance for any reason
• your allowance has been suspended for a period of 12 months
• your hours of employment are reduced to a classroom teaching load of less than 0.8 FTTE for longer than one term
• you are subject to disciplinary action or other adverse consequences as a result of a competency or disciplinary process
• you receive an unsatisfactory assessment for teacher certification, or cease to hold full certification
• you receive an unsatisfactory performance review (appraisal)
• you are allocated more than one permanent unit in your current position
• you cease to be employed under the PTCA or an equivalent Individual Employment Agreement.

The Ministry will write to you to tell you why they intend to suspend or cease paying your allowance. You will have an opportunity to provide any information or a statement of reasons why your allowance should not be suspended or stopped.

Once your ACET recognition has been ceased in order to hold it again you will need to reapply through the EOI and portfolio processes.

You can contact the ACET team on 0800 165 225 or by emailing acet.recognition@education.govt.nz.