Doctors: Workplace Pensions

(asked on 22nd March 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2023 to Question 166289 on Doctors: Workplace Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) raising the annual allowance and (b) the abolition of the lifetime allowance on pensions on the number of doctors working for the NHS.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 30th March 2023

The decision to claim pension benefits or reduce working commitments is a personal one and it is not possible to assess the impact of a specific factor. Estimates based on projected pension scheme data indicate that around 22,000 senior National Health Service clinicians could exceed the previous £40,000 annual allowance in 2023/2024 and that around 31,000 clinicians had reached at least 75% of the £1.073 million lifetime allowance.

A survey undertaken by the British Medical Association (BMA) suggested that 72% of doctors will retire earlier because of the previous decision to freeze the lifetime allowance and 61% of respondents stated that they would reduce the amount of work that they do for the NHS.

The chair of the BMA’s Pension Committee said that removing the lifetime allowance will be potentially transformative for the NHS as the majority of senior doctors will no longer be forced to retire early and can continue to work within the NHS, providing vital patient care and that the rise in the annual allowance will mean far fewer doctors will receive large pension tax bills and will significantly reduce the perverse incentive to reduce hours due to pension tax.

Reticulating Splines