Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of decoupling the age at which an individual can claim their NHS Pension from the State Pension Age.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Pension Scheme is generous, and provides good pensions for retirement. A new reformed scheme was introduced in 2015, to ensure the costs are sustainable for the future. The reforms included linking scheme retirement age to an individual’s state pension age, in response to people living healthier, longer lives.
Individuals can claim their National Health Service pension earlier than their state pension age, although their benefits will be reduced in value, to account for the fact that they are being paid for longer. This reduction is waived when the scheme accepts a claim for early retirement on ill-health grounds. Where an NHS pension is claimed after state pension age, the reverse applies, and the value of benefits will be increased. The scheme also offers a partial retirement option, which allows staff to draw down all or part of their pension, and continue working in a more flexible way.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many complaints have been lodged about the delivery of NHS Pensions in the last year.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) administers the NHS Pension Scheme and operates a complaints process as well as a two-step Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) procedure. If a complainant has exhausted the IDR process and is not satisfied with the outcome, they may also be able to approach the Pensions Ombudsman.
In the 12 months to the end of August 2023, the NHSBSA received 813 complaints, 1,201 IDRs at Stage One, 295 IDRs at Stage Two and 55 cases referred from the Pensions Ombudsman. Some of the complaints the NHSBSA receive may progress to an IDR at Stage One. However, not all IDRs at Stage One originate as complaints as some complainants embark straight onto the IDR process.
These complaints need to be seen in the context of the number of members in the NHS Pension Scheme. As of 31 March 2023, there were 1,815,310 active members, 772,560 deferred members and 1,098,388 pensioner members.
Mentions:
1: Richard Fuller (Con - North East Bedfordshire) Are the illnesses set down by the NHS? Is there a limited list of those illnesses? - Speech Link
2: Laurence Robertson (Con - Tewkesbury) provided by the excellent Sue Ryder hospice in my constituency—and the general care provided by our NHS - Speech Link
3: Philip Davies (Con - Shipley) Paragraph 25B(3) of schedule 7 to the Pensions Act 2004 and paragraph 12(3) of schedule 5 to the Pensions - Speech Link
4: Jo Churchill (Con - Bury St Edmunds) practice and NHS initiatives, such as the gold standards framework. - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Laurence Robertson (Con - Tewkesbury) schedule 4 to the Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008. - Speech Link
2: Thérèse Coffey (Con - Suffolk Coastal) In essence, the NHS treats and issues certificates on the basis—which brings in other elements—that the - Speech Link
3: Paul Maynard (Con - Blackpool North and Cleveleys) Special Rules for End of Life) Act 2022, and chose the 12-month approach specifically to align with the NHS - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Keir Starmer (Lab - Holborn and St Pancras) going to be paid for by cuts to state pensions or cuts to the NHS? - Speech Link
2: Keir Starmer (Lab - Holborn and St Pancras) He is either cutting pensions or the NHS, or he will have to raise other taxes or borrowing. - Speech Link
3: Keir Starmer (Lab - Holborn and St Pancras) Now he is pretending that it can all be paid for with no impact on pensions or the NHS. - Speech Link
4: Rishi Sunak (Con - Richmond (Yorks)) Pensions are going up by around £900 this year. - Speech Link
Mar. 14 2024
Source Page: FRAB minutes and associated papers: 23 November 2023Found: 2023 Page 1 of 5 Financial Reporting Advisory Board Paper Treatment of local government pensions
Apr. 15 2024
Source Page: 2020 Valuation - NHS Pension Schemes (Scotland)Found: 2020 Valuation - NHS Pension Schemes (Scotland)
Apr. 23 2024
Source Page: 2020 Valuation - NHS Pension Scheme (England and Wales)Found: 2020 Valuation - NHS Pension Scheme (England and Wales)
Mentions:
1: Andrew Western (Lab - Stretford and Urmston) NHS waiting lists are currently at 7.8 million, with more than 177,000 people on waiting lists in my - Speech Link
2: Mel Stride (Con - Central Devon) The pensions Minister, my hon. - Speech Link
3: Liz Kendall (Lab - Leicester West) Today, their Prime Minister admitted that he has failed on NHS waiting lists, which the long-term sick - Speech Link
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the correspondence from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health, Start for Life and Primary Care to the hon. Member for South Shields of December 2023, for what purpose her Department requested personal identifiable data from the Department for Work and Pensions on people who are eligible for Healthy Start.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care does not receive personal data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on those eligible for the Healthy Start scheme. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) runs the scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. The Department is continuing to work closely with the NHS BSA and the DWP, in order for the NHS BSA to receive the personal data held by the DWP for those potentially eligible citizens, as soon as possible. The NHS BSA will use this data to reach out to those eligible, who are not currently in receipt of Healthy Start, to encourage them to apply for the Healthy Start scheme.