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Government launches consultation on pension amendments to retain GPs

Government launches consultation on pension amendments to retain GPs

The Government has launched a consultation on amendments to the NHS pensions scheme, which are aimed at retaining senior GPs and other doctors.

The Department and Health and Social Care said the proposed amendments will enable retired and partially retired doctors to return to work or increase their working hours without payments to their pension being cut or suspended.

It said this would allow staff to claim a portion or all of their pension benefits but continue working and contributing to their pension.

Proposals include:

  • Removing limits on hours recently retired staff can work
  • Allowing retired staff to rejoin the pension scheme
  • Fixing the interaction between the pension tax system and inflation to give senior clinicians ‘more headroom’ against the £40,000 pension tax annual allowance
  • Allowing staff working in primary care networks, such as GPs and general practice staff, to access the NHS pension scheme

Among the recommendations to allow staff to work longer with more flexible rules, is a proposal that on reaching minimum pension age (currently 55), members will become eligible to partially retire if they reduce their pensionable pay by at least 10%. For GPs, a 10% reduction in commitment would be required.

In setting out the proposals the Government said that the plans for partial retirement would better support work/life balance and may help the NHS retain experienced staff.

And for those impacted by pension tax, this proposal would also allow them to manage their tax position by partially retiring and remaining in work rather than leaving the NHS or opting out of pension scheme completely, the consultation document said.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the plans out for consultation will enable NHS staff to work more flexibly up to and beyond retirement age.

It claimed the reforms will ‘open up extra appointments so patients can see their GP and hospital consultants more quickly’.

However, the BMA warned that Government proposals to reform NHS pensions ‘are too little too late’ and fall short of what is actually needed to prevent doctors facing punitive tax bills.

While the detail of the proposals will need to be considered, on the face of it, it seems doctors will continue to ‘incur sky-high and completely unexpected tax bills’ and the proposals fall well short of a long-term solution, the BMA pensions committee chair said.

Moves to introduce a partial retirement option and greater flexibility for recently retired doctors returning to the workforce will have potential benefits including standardising retire and return arrangements, BMA pensions chair Dr Vishal Sharma said.

But it does not directly address the issues caused by the annual or lifetime allowance,’ he added.

‘These are not just issues for doctors nearing retirement, but they are also increasingly influencing the decisions of mid-career consultants and GPs, for whom partial retirement would not be an option.

‘These doctors will still have to consider reducing the work they do to prevent incurring large punitive tax bills and it is disingenuous of the Government to suggest that this will make any meaningful difference to the huge backlogs in care we are seeing.’

He added that a recent BMA survey suggested that over 40% of consultants plan to leave the NHS in some capacity over the next 12 months and the situation is just as stark for GPs and other senior doctors. 

‘And while attempts to reduce the impact of inflation may have an effect this year, without a change to the Finance Act we will see doctors negatively hit in the coming years.

‘It is essential that the Government addresses the anomaly of negative pension growth which has a disproportionate impact on the public sector, due to unintended consequences of the Public Sector Pension reforms.

‘Unless addressed, this will have a huge detrimental impact on the NHS, particularly if the Government follows through with its threat to impose further sub-inflationary pay awards.’

Minister of health, Will Quince, said: ‘The changes we are proposing to the NHS pension scheme will offer senior clinicians more flexibility and control over how and when they work, putting the decision about their career directly in their hands.

‘As a result, experienced, senior staff will no longer feel forced to retire early, ultimately benefiting patients by ensuring their expertise remains in the NHS for longer so we can continue to deliver world-class healthcare.’

Last month, it had been reported that the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt would extend the freeze on GP pension lifetime allowance in his autumn budget statement, leading the BMA to warn that this would further exacerbate pensions issues which are causing doctors to retire early, but there was no mention made of the issue.

The consultation will be open for eight weeks and reforms are expected to be implemented in late spring 2023.


          

READERS' COMMENTS [13]

Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles

Iain Chalmers 5 December, 2022 11:18 am

Bit of “horse” & “bolted” IMHO

14 sessions left and getting happier by the day.

First enjoyable Xmas in my career.

Happy to my 1/2p to the consultation but doubt would be printable or wanted!

Douglas Callow 5 December, 2022 12:59 pm

fluff and flannel from Mr Barclay who still feels Brexit was a splendid idea that was nobbled by Ukraine and Covid
Should be noted he is about to go head to head with nurses paramedics and other striking HCPs and the rhetoric remains the same with no acceptance that Populism polarisation post truth and 12 years of austerity economics are the real reasons behind many of the nhs woes

Dr N 5 December, 2022 6:02 pm

Why do they need a consultation? The profession/BMA have been shouting at them about this for several years. The effects of taxation on annual and lifetime allowances are obvious

Patrufini Duffy 5 December, 2022 6:09 pm

Launches. Off a flat crumbled launch pad. Stupid country, on a stupid course. Made in stupid land.

Decorum Est 5 December, 2022 10:29 pm

The DHSC said the proposed amendments will enable retired and partially retired doctors to return to work or increase their working hours without payments to their pension being cut or suspended….. Yah Di Yah Di Yah Di Yah Di ……..

Slobber Dog 6 December, 2022 8:31 am

Hurry up chaps, otherwise many of us will be long gone.

Turn out The Lights 6 December, 2022 9:10 am

So wide of the mark.The Biggest problem is the LTA.Cannot see how this remidies that.12 months and counting.

Anony Mouse 6 December, 2022 11:47 pm

6 months and counting

David Jarvis 7 December, 2022 9:10 am

Classic delaying tactics. They really don’t realise quite what they are dealing with. Until recently many Drs were quite laissez faire about their pensions, but monster tax bills are concentrating quite capable brains. They could fix this easily and the fact they are delaying shows they don’t want to. Many of us could explain it in crayon for them if they cared. AA is making overtime work pointless of even a loss. The fear of this means many will decline just in case because data is out of date and slow from the providers of information. So won’t work more even if could be OK. And with LTA you may as well go when you hit it.
COI part time now at 56 having retired and returned taking my pension 4 years early with actuarial reduction getting me to 100.34% of AA. Piling money once spent on pension into ISA’s and will be gone soon.

Hot Felon 7 December, 2022 8:12 pm

Got out of scheme age 50 and deferred knowing LTA looming.
Retired age 57.75.
With a little inflation I got to 96.3% LTA (1.25m) on retirement – not a bad guess!

John Charlton 7 December, 2022 9:27 pm

Again this is a disaster. Abandoning LTA is solution but it’s too big a political climbdown. And think of the backtracking needed on all those that have paid the tax penalty already. And those that had to retire early because of the impending tax…and so on.

Dave Haddock 9 December, 2022 2:02 pm

Any chance of abolishing the utterly pointless Appraisals?
Reigning in the CQC?
Stopping the PCN from endlessly wasting everyone’s time?
Doing something about the multiple jeopardy of current complaints handling?
Pensions way down the list of reasons to get out early.

Tee Bee 10 December, 2022 10:11 am

Hot air so that they can claim to have fixed the GP pension issues. Unless they increase the LTA I’ll be drawing my pension and reducing to 2 sessions next year at the age of 55. I think back to my colleagues of 20 years ago who had no limit to their pension savings and kept going till they were 65 or more. But back then there was also none of the abuse/ demonization/micromanagement we have today.