The increase, agreed by the Archbishops’ Council, acting as the Central Stipends Authority (CSA), will see the minimum stipend jump from £26,134 to £28,670. The greater uplift to seven per cent has been made possible because dioceses, which will have to fund the stipends, need pay less into the Church of England pensions scheme. The 2021 review recommended that the NMS should be linked instead to the Consumer Prices Index including owner-occupiers’ housing costs — the Government’s preferred measure of inflation. Most of the dioceses who contributed to the 2021 review argued that a higher level of stipend would not be affordable. It was a recommendation that went unmet: the 2021 review observed that some of the aspirations of its predecessor “proved unaffordable or perhaps unrealistic .

Source: The Times February 07, 2024 10:26 UTC