Does the new NHS pension scheme affect you? Tell us how you feel by commenting below.
The key facts in the proposals for a new NHS pension
Scheme are:
The proposed pension scheme will not be introduced before April 2015.
• All pension rights earned in the NHS pension scheme up to that point will
be unaffected and based on your final salary when you retire. No-one will
lose any pension entitlements that they have already built up.
• If you are within ten years of your pension age you will not be moving to the
new scheme and will get the same pension you would have done at your
chosen retirement age.
• If you are within thirteen years and five months of normal pension age, your
pension is partially protected – so you will remain on the current
arrangements for a longer period.
• The new pension scheme from 2015 will continue to provide what is called
‘defined scheme related benefits’ – this is different to the ‘defined
contribution’ schemes which are now common in the private sector and
often more risky.
• Those defined scheme related benefits will be based on your average
earnings over the course of your NHS career rather than your final salary.
• The annual rate of pension accrual for the new scheme will be 1/54ths of
pensionable earnings each year with no limit to your service – this is the
rate at which you build up pension benefits. This is a better accrual rate for
your pension than you get at the moment.
• Employee pension contributions – what you pay into your pension – is
based on a full-time salary and will increase by an average of 3.2
percentage points over 3 years from April 2012. The 630,000 NHS staff
who earn less than £26,557 on a full-time equivalent basis will not pay any
extra into their pension in 2012/13 and there will be consultation on the
proposals for subsequent years.
• Most NHS Trades Unions and NHS Employers have stated that they
believe that this final proposal represents the best that can be achieved
through discussions.
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