The pay perk striking doctors don't mention: gold-plated pensions
Missing from the British Medical Association's call for a 29 per cent pay rise is recognition of the fact that doctors, alongside nurses, teachers, civil servants and other public sector employees, are among the few who still have generous salary-linked pensions.
Most of us save into defined contribution (DC) schemes, where the size of your pension pot at retirement depends on how much was paid in and how your investments performed. However, defined benefit (DB) schemes, which have largely disappeared outside the public sector, pay a guaranteed income in retirement, linked to your level of pay and increasing in line with inflation.
Doctors are told they receive a 23.7 per cent pension contribution from the NHS but in reality the cost to the taxpayer of funding their retirement income can be higher. In years when the cost of paying out pensions is more than what is being contributed, the Treasury — and therefore the taxpayer — fills the gap.
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