• The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have launched a new consultation to give clinicians more pensions flexibility.
• The DHSC estimates that a third of consultants and GPs may be disincentivised to take on extra shifts due to pension tax rules.
• The consultation outlines a range of new flexibilities for GPs, senior nurses and consultants including being able to choose a personalised pension growth level at the start of each tax year and pay correspondingly lower contributions.
• It also provides the option to fine-tune pension growth towards the end of the tax year when they are clearer on total earnings. This will allow them to ‘top-up’ their pension pot to the maximum amount without hitting their tapered annual allowance limit.
  
  

Responding to the government’s new NHS pensions consultation, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson said:

“It is good to see the government has recognised the importance of addressing the pensions issue as it affects senior clinicians, through this consultation. It is important that this is followed by decisive steps to ensure they are not penalised financially for carrying out much-needed work which makes a huge difference for so many patients.

It is good to see the government has recognised the importance of addressing the pensions issue as it affects senior clinicians, through this consultation.

“We have played a leading role in raising these concerns and we are pleased to see they are being addressed.

“However, we are worried that in tackling the concerns of senior clinicians, the continuing pensions difficulties for more junior staff and for NHS managers will be overlooked. It is vital that this does not happen, and we will continue highlight the damaging impact this could have.”