Teachers are set to lose big in the Daily Subsistence Allowances (DSA) after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) issued an advisory to review allowances in the Public Service.
In the latest advisory whose effective date is August 7, 2023, SRC has standardized the rates of DSA for local travel which shall be payable to public officers including teachers across the country unlike before when the allowances were bunched into three major clusters.
If the advisory by the country’s salaries regulator, shall be implemented in full, the DSA for local travel payable in all cities and towns shall now range between Ksh4, 200 to Ksh18, 200
The advisory has it that DSA for local travel shall not be payable for locations within a 50km radius of the respective duty stations of the officers affected.
This therefore implies that teachers and more so the TSC field officers who include Regional, County and Sub-county Directors will be the most affected as they require making travels in their line of duty.
In a circular dated August 7, 2023, the Chairperson of the commission, Lyn Mengich, stated that the move aims at achieving equity and transparency in the management of allowances, and to offer guidance to the government in handling the wage bill.
“The review and advice therefrom is expected to result in equity and transparency in the management of allowances, and guide the government in the management of the wage bill,” said Mengich in the advisory to the Attorney General, Controller of Budget, Auditor General, and other government bodies.
“DSA shall not be payable for locations that are within a 50km radius of respective duty stations of the officers affected,” she added in the Circular.
Initially, in cluster one which included cities of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru the local travel DSA ranged from Ksh4,200 to Ksh22,000; while cluster two which included County headquarters, Malindi and Naivasha ranged from Ksh3,500 to Ksh18,000.
For cluster three which included all other towns the DSA for local travel ranged from Ksh3, 000 to Ksh14, 000.
The payment of DSA is always meant to facilitate public officers to attend to official assignments away from their duty stations within and outside the country.
Allowances paid to teachers are classified as either remunerative or reimbursable, whereby remunerative are paid with salary while reimbursable allowances are refundable upon application.
There are two types of remunerative allowances which are: automatic which includes house, medical, commuter, and hardship.
While those paid on application are responsibility, special duty, readers, interpreters, special school, and Quota per Diem which is daily subsistence allowance paid to teachers on official assignment whose application must be made at least 14 days before travelling among other allowances.
New DSA Rates for Public Officers (Local Travel)
| Civil Service Grading Equivalent | Job Evaluation Grade | All Cities, County Headquarters & All Other Towns (Ksh) |
| U | E4-E5 | 18,200 |
| S-T | E1-E3 | 16,800 |
| P-R | D1-D5 | 14,000 |
| K-N | C2-C5 | 11,200 |
| F-J | B3-C1 | 6,300 |
| A-E | A1-B2 | 4,200 |
DSA Rates for Public Officers (Local Travel) BEFORE
| Job Group (Civil Service & Equivalent) | State Officer | Cluster 1 | Cluster 2 | Cluster 3 |
| Cities (Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru) KSH | County Headquarters, Malindi and Naivasha (KSH) | All other Towns
(KSH) |
||
| F4 | 22,000 | 18,000 | 14,000 | |
| U-V | F1, F2, E5 | 18,200 | 14,600 | 12,500 |
| S-T | E3, E4 | 16,800 | 12,600 | 10,500 |
| P-R | E2, E1, D5 | 14,000 | 10,500 | 8,400 |
| K-N | D4 | 11,200 | 8,400 | 7,000 |
| F-J | 6,300 | 4,900 | 4,200 | |
| A-E | 4,200 | 3,500 | 3,000 |
By Our Reporter
Get more stories from our website: Education News
To write to us or offer feedback, you can reach us through: editor@educationnews.co.ke
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper For timely updates.
