New pension pay arrangements for GP locums now live

Locum GPs now have a simpler way of paying their pension contributions, with a new system introduced to reduce bureaucracy.

Primary Care Support England (PCSE) Online, which processes pension forms, is now integrated with a free Government service called GOV.UK Pay that will allow locums to pay their contributions immediately after submitting key paperwork instead of having to make a separate BACS payment.

The change, which took effect from 1 October, is aimed at reducing bureacracy for locums.

In an update to practices issued last week, PCSE explained that now when a GP successfully submits a Locum B form (that is a monthly record of all pensionable pay) on PCSE Online, ‘a new GOV.UK Pay button will be enabled at the bottom of the form’.

‘Clicking on the the button will take an individual directly to GOV.UK Pay which will display the calcuated contribution amount owed and allow for payment to be taken via card.

PCSE said there are numerous benefits to the new system including faster processing, and that updates are automatically made to pension records and individuals’ employee contributions statements within 24 hours. In addition, users can store card details for future use.

Previously, GP locums would have to make payment by sending money via BACS.

PCSE said that while submitting Locum A and B forms through PCSE Online, and making pension contribution payments via GOV.UK Pay is now the preferred route, forms can still be submitted via the PCSE Contact us form and a payment via BACS be made.

Meanwhile, PCSE has also urged practices to ensure they have assigned a member of staff to approve pension forms submitted by locum GPs, as they anticipate an increase in the number of GPs using the portal to submit their paperwork.

Practices are required to approve Locum A forms completed and submitted via PCSE online by their locum GPs. However they first need to have a member of staff assigned to the role of ‘GPP – Locum Approvals’ within PCSE online.

This role is essential in ensuring timely approval of forms and that locums don’t miss out on pensionable income by getting caught out by the 10-week rule set by NHS Pensions. This states that locums cannot pension a period of locum work that ended more than 10 weeks ago. ‘Any forms received after 10 weeks cannot be pensionable so will be rejected,’ PCSE said.

Help on assigning the ‘GPP – Locum Approvals’ role can be found here.

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