TSC News Today- The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) pays a monthly hardship allowance to a section of teachers. This is an allowance that is paid to teachers deployed in designated hardship areas. The allowance is meant to compensate teachers working in the Hardship Areas to compensate them for lack of basic social services and amenities, security risk, harsh climatic conditions, isolation and family separation.
Some teachers are set to lose the hardship allowance because the designated hardship areas shall be reviewed, by the relevant government institution/s to reflect changes in designated hardship areas arising from benefits of devolution and Equalization Fund. This is because devolution has implied that Counties are no longer necessarily hardship areas since they are receiving equalization funds to promote development in the counties thereby addressing the characteristics of hardship areas.
Read also; List of TSC allowances to be reviewed/ scrapped from July 2021.
Current Hardship allowance rates
In December, 2014, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, SRC, reviewed hardship allowance to be paid at a flat rate for all equivalent grades/ job groups. The Commission effectively abolished the pegging of the hardship allowance as a percentage of basic pay.
The table below summarizes the monthly hardship allowance rates that are paid to teachers working in hardship areas; per job group:
| S/NO | GRADE | TSC SCALE | FORMER JOB GROUP | Hardship Allowance- in Kshs per Month |
| 1 | B5 | 5 | G | 6,600 |
| 2 | C1 | 6 | H | 8,200 |
| 3 | C2 | 7 | I | 10,900 |
| 4 | C3 | 8 | J | 12,300 |
| 5 | C4 | 9 | K | 14,650 |
| 6 | C5 | 10 | L | 17,100 |
| 7 | D1 | 11 | M | 27,300 |
| 8 | D2 | 12 | N | 27,300 |
| 9 | D3 | 13 | P | 31,500 |
| 10 | D4 | 14 | Q | 31,500 |
| 11 | D5 | 15 | R | 38,100 |
You may also like;
- Some teachers to lose House, Hardship allowances- TSC News
- List of TSC allowances for teachers that have been scrapped
- Hardship Areas List; TSC scraps off some areas from the list
- TSC allowances for all teachers per grade
Current TSC designated hardship areas.
TSC has designated various areas as hardship. The areas considered as hardship include those that are prone to terrorism, famine and aridity. As of 2012, TSC had about 38 areas approved as hardship.
Currently, teachers teaching in schools located in some parts of the following counties receive monthly hardship allowances.
| S/NO. | AREA/ COUNTY |
| 1 | Garissa County |
| 2 | Isiolo County |
| 3 | Kilifi County |
| 4 | Kwale County |
| 5 | Lamu County |
| 6 | Mandera County |
| 7 | Marsabit County |
| 8 | Narok County |
| 9 | Samburu County |
| 10 | Taita Taveta County |
| 11 | Tana River County |
| 12 | Turkana |
| 13 | Wajir County |
| 14 | West Pokot County |