A school funding blunder will not affect a reward voucher scheme for civil servants, the Department for Education has said. A spokesperson said it would be 鈥渦nfair to penalise junior staff from across the department, who are most often the recipients of non-cash rewards鈥� for an error that shaved 拢370 million off indicative school budgets for 2024-25. Ministers the DfE paid out 拢445,000 in non-cash vouchers to employees in 2022-23. It prompted questions about whether the scheme would continue this year after the revelation that funding allocations data sent out in July was incorrect. The department admitted last month that it had made a pupil number calculation error that would have inflated the total schools budget by 0.62 per cent. As a result, it revised down the expected school funding increase for next year from 2.7 to 1.9 per cent. Based on these figures, the average secondary school will be 拢57,970 worse-off than predicted in July, and the average primary 拢12,420. ‘Unfair’ to punish junior staff A DfE spokesperson said non-cash vouchers were 鈥渟tandard practice across the private sector and in government, and it鈥檚 right that we recognise staff who go above and beyond鈥�.聽 Susan Acland Hood Susan Acland-Hood, the department鈥檚 permanent secretary, 鈥渉as taken full responsibility for the NFF technical error鈥�, they added. 鈥淚t would be unfair to penalise junior staff…for this mistake that has not changed the total schools鈥� budget for 2024-25 or impacted on current school funding for 2023-24.鈥� The amount handed to DfE staff in the form of vouchers has increased in recent years. Between 2017 and 2019, amounts ranged from 拢289,000 to 拢353,000, but 拢753,000 was issued in 2020-21. That rise 鈥渨as due to a new HR system being launched in the department, with an increase made to the instant reward budget鈥�. 鈥淭his was to enable rewards to continue during a wider payroll freeze and a corresponding reduction in other reward budgets.鈥� The DfE paid out 拢469,000 in 2021-22.