McCloud pension members face more delays in receiving vital statements

NHS pension members, including GPs and other primary care staff, affected by McCloud are facing further delays in receiving key paperwork to help them make choices on their retirement benefits or be able to plan finances. 

Karin Smyth, minister of state for health (secondary care), issued a statement to Parliament last week setting out timelines for when important pension information will be sent out to awaiting scheme members – but warned these will likely be pushed back.

A total of 1.1 million are affected by the McCloud remedy implemented to remove the age discrimination that was judged to have arisen in the NHS pension scheme. Those affected can make a choice of pension benefits for the period between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 (known as the ‘remedy period’).

Two different statements are outstanding to McCloud members – one called the remediable service statement (RSS), which provides vital information about pension benefits and the choices available to the individual, and the other called the remedial pension savings statements (RPSS), which are needed by higher-earning members to calculate where tax charges apply.

The issuing of both statements, which are drawn up by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), has been delayed a number of times because of technical complexities as well as the volume of processing work. RPSS were originally legally required to be sent by October 2024.

In her statement, Ms Smyth set out that out of the 1.1 million members affected by McCloud, 450,000 have already retired but that priority for delivery of the RSS or ‘choice letter’ is to 49,000 members ‘who are likely to receive higher benefits following their McCloud choice’ to prevent them facing a ‘financial detriment’.

Of these, as of this June,13,982 have received statements.  The rest are currently forecast to receive their calculations and paperwork by December 2027.

Meanwhile, 19,694 members are still due an RPSS, which she described as ‘particularly complex statements’ but that the NHSBSA had already issued them to 122,036 members.

‘The current forecast for completion of this work is March 2027,’ she said.

However, she went on to warn that both forecasts and ‘the plan overall’ were subject to change since steps are being taken to speed up delivery of statements including bringing in external suppliers to help NHSBSA manage its workload and ‘the release of software to automate statement production wherever possible’.

She said while there was progress being made and that automating software is in testing phase ‘further time is required to reduce the uncertainty in the plan timings’ and she wouldn’t yet be ‘comfortable’ to set new statutory deadlines.

She added: ‘When the current work is sufficiently progressed, I will set new RSS deadlines that are realistic, achievable and protect delivery of normal pension service operations which continue to run in parallel to remedy activity.

‘Irrespective of when new deadlines are set, delivering the McCloud remedy remains a priority, particularly for those members who are likely to be facing financial detriment.’

Graham Crossley, NHS pensions expert at Quilter, said the delays continue to have genuine consequences for those awaiting completion of their remedy.

‘For some members, this means continued financial detriment where they may be entitled to higher pension benefits, while for others the passage of time creates additional complexity as circumstances change through retirement, partial retirement, bereavement or wider tax planning decisions.

Although he further said, ‘the decision to delay setting new statutory deadlines until there is greater certainty around delivery capacity and system automation is understandable’.

He added: ‘While members will inevitably be disappointed by further delays, there is little value in establishing ambitious deadlines only for them to be missed later. Realistic and achievable targets ultimately provide greater confidence for affected scheme members.’

A version of this article was first published by Pulse’s sister title Management in Practice