Latest news with #NHSBusinessServicesAuthority
Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Retired NHS workers on six-figure pensions reaches record high
The number of retired NHS workers picking up six-figure pensions has reached a record high after increasing tenfold in the last decade. More than 3,000 former health service employees are being paid an annual pension of more than £100,000, up by 64pc compared with a year ago. Campaigners are now calling on Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, to overhaul the 'unfunded and gold-plated' NHS pension scheme. The latest figures from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) show the cost of its pensions is now at £12bn per year, with 1.1m former staff qualifying for the retirement payments. It means there are 47,267 former NHS staff being paid pensions worth more than £50,000 per year, up by 15pc from last year. Of those, 3,126 are picking up more than £100,000 this year. Last year, the figure stood at 1,909. A decade ago, the number of former NHS staff with a pension of £50,000 per year or more was just 19,886 and the number getting £100,000 or more was limited to just 285 people. In the private sector a person would need on average a pension pot of around £3m in order to be able to settle down with an inflation linked six-figure pension income. Government officials said part of the reason for the rapid rise in the numbers of people with the biggest pensions may be linked to higher inflation. This is because the pensions are index-linked, meaning the higher the inflation, the more the amount of pension increases the following year. Higher earning employees within the NHS – typically GPs and consultants – have to contribute 12.5pc of their earnings to be included in the pension scheme. But for NHS pensions there is no pool of contributions building up over time. The payments are made up from the salary deductions from people currently working in the NHS as well as additional payments to top the scheme up from central government. Critics of the NHS retirement scheme say its generosity creates a financial time bomb with 2.5m members expecting a pension from it in the future. John O'Connell, the chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, a campaign group, said: 'There is now an extraordinary elite of NHS retirees who rake in massive pension payments every year, not paid out of retirement pots but instead out of the pockets of working taxpayers. 'That's because NHS employees, like in much of the public sector, get access to gold-plated and unfunded defined benefit schemes which are now almost absent in the private sector. 'As part of his plan to radically reform the NHS Wes Streeting should move all new staff onto fully-funded, defined contribution schemes.' A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'The NHS Pension Scheme provides generous retirement benefits for hard-working staff after a lifetime of service, and the scheme was comprehensively reformed in 2015 to ensure the costs are sustainable. 'Staff and employers are required to pay contributions that meet the full cost of the benefits being built up, with higher earners paying proportionately more than other members.'
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The London area with the best NHS dentist access in England
North west London is the area with the best access to NHS dentists in England, figures suggest. Meanwhile, the British Dental Association warns that the NHS dentistry service "has effectively ceased to exist for millions". It comes a few days after the Government rolled out 700,000 extra urgent dentist appointments in 'dental deserts' where patients struggle to access dental care. Figures from the NHS Business Services Authority, an arm's length body of the Department of Health and Social Care, show there were 1,427 dentists working in the NHS North West London Integrated Care Board area in 2023-24. It means there were 67 dentists per 100,000 people in the area – up slightly from 66 the year before, and from 65 in 2019-20. Across England, there was an average 42 dentists per 100,000 people in 2023-24, which was in line with the previous year, but down from a rate of 44 in 2019-20. READ MORE: Barnet man jailed for 14 years after removing condom during sex READ MORE: 75-year-old who died after attack named for first time as 3 teenage girls charged with manslaughter There were also significant disparities in access to dental care across the country – Norfolk and Waveney counted 31 dentists per 100,000 population last year for instance. BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: "Access to NHS dentistry has always been a postcode lottery, but the chances of your numbers coming up are now more remote than ever. This reality is this service has effectively ceased to exist for millions." Mr Crouch urged the Government to fund its pledge to rebuild the NHS dentistry service, which includes the roll out of extra urgent dentist appointments as well as supervised toothbrushing in schools. "Only then will this service have a future," he added. Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, warned NHS dentistry is "leaving patients struggling to get the care they need". She said dental care appointments are "simply out of reach" in certain areas, leading to "serious consequences" for people's dental health. Separate NHS BSA figures show only 41 per cent of adults in north west London saw a dentist in the past two years, and 56 per cent of children in the area had a dental appointment in the last 12 months. In England, around 41 per cent of adults had an appointment in the past two years, and about 56 per cent of children did so in the last year. NHS England's guideline states most adults should see a dentist every two years, and children should go no longer than a year without a dental check-up. Dr Nigel Carter, CEO of the Oral Health Foundation, said regional inequalities in access to NHS dental services are "shocking" as dental care should be "available at the point of need". He explained dental conditions such as rotting teeth could be prevented with more regular check-ups but warned "it is not something which can now be fixed overnight". Dr Carter added: "Currently the NHS contract is not fit for purpose for either the public or profession leading to a crumbling system." An NHS spokesperson said: "The NHS is determined to improve access to dental care, and that's why we are working to incentivise dentists to work in underserved areas to ensure people in all areas of the country can receive the care they need. But there is more to do and we are working with local systems to provide 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments and with the Government to reform the dental contract and shape the upcoming 10-year plan to improve our services for patients." Stay in the loop with the latest North London news. Sign up for our MyNorthLondon newsletter HERE to get daily updates and more.
Telegraph
29-01-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘I owe £7,500 in tax after working one NHS shift'
When Dr Leon Creaney opened his pension statement, all he wanted was a small amount of growth. After all, he'd spent three years working on the NHS's frontline after stepping back in to help during the Covid 19 pandemic. Instead, he found himself Reflecting on that day, he says: 'My worst possible fears were realised. I opened up this letter expecting it to be a couple of hundred pounds growth for each year. I almost fainted.' The saga began in April 2020 at the height of lockdown. Dr Creaney, who is 47 and lives near Manchester, decided to work an A&E shift at his local hospital. At the time, It was simple for people in For NHS pensions, however, the perceived growth of someone's benefits was measured against the allowance – and the calculation was extremely complex. Dr Creaney had carefully managed how much went into his private pension, but his hospital shift came right at the end of the tax year and added another £57 into his NHS pension. This triggered a calculation which, due to historic inflation, found his benefits had grown by £17,500 – meaning he had breached the allowance and a Graham Crossley, of Quilter, said that even today it was possible for £1 of additional income to generate a £22,500 tax bill. He said: 'Due to a quirk in the way that the 1995 Section pension is calculated, it's the application of inflation to Dr Creaney's historic pensionable pay, triggered by just that one shift he worked, that caused this pension growth. 'However, it's not real growth until you take the pension benefits, so his pension hasn't gone up by £17,500, but that's the calculation of how much the value of his overall benefits has increased. 'Had he waited a few weeks until the new tax year to work, it's likely he wouldn't have faced any tax charge but still built up the same pension benefits. It's very unfair.' Back in early 2020, Dr Creaney had feared something like this was coming and tried to rectify it. In the June following that shift, he contacted the NHS Business Services Authority to inform them he was back working in the NHS and By now he was working one to two shifts a week, and as he was Five months later, he had not received a response and followed up by email – only to be told there had been no contributions to his pension since he first left the NHS in 2018. He says: 'They told me in writing that I had no pension growth for 2019 to 2020. I left it. For a couple of years, we were just dealing with the fall out of lockdown, so I didn't chase it up. 'By the end of 2022, I chased it up and said: I need to know my tax liability. You've given me no information for years now.' Three years after that first shift, his pension statement finally arrived. To his horror, he was told he had exceeded his More tax bills running into the thousands could be on the way, and Dr Creaney says he has not been told how much they would be. He says: 'This has caused me unbelievable amounts of stress for five years in a row now. I can't work for the NHS again. I can't run the risk of doing one shift that generates 12.5 times the amount I earned [in tax]. 'I was quite happy doing a couple of shifts a week up to then. It's kind of like that drop dead moment. It really does feel like a massive kick in the teeth. Thanks for your service and now we're going to punitively tax you as much as we can. 'In a private pension, you can estimate how much you'll get. With the NHS pension, it's this random number you can't guess. You can't estimate yourself.' He is still waiting for a remedial pension statement. Due to the McCloud remedy – which will affect all NHS staff in the pension scheme before 2012 – his pension will require two calculations, In the meantime, his local MP has written to Wes Streeting, the health secretary, on his behalf. He has also launched a County Court claim against the NHS pension scheme for 'the tax they fooled me into earning'. He says: 'One of the reasons I've taken this to court is this really horrible and stubborn refusal to ever admit any wrongdoing from NHS pensions. This really arrogant denial that they've ever done anything wrong or made any mistakes is really annoying and I want them to apologise. 'I would go back if it was sorted out.' Sadly, Dr Creaney's situation is far from unique. The British Medical Association has previously warned that pension rules were pushing doctors into retiring early. As recently as November, it said doctors were The NHS Business Services Authority itself has also admitted that more than Dr Creaney is largely working privately in Manchester. He is also employed by British Athletics and will be the team's doctor at the upcoming World Indoor Championships in China. He is concerned that the issue he faced is affecting the NHS's long-term future. He says: 'I'm aware of doctors who say that pension tax is so punitive that they're effectively paying to go to work and it's not worth doing extra shifts for the NHS. Surgeons are refusing to do waiting list initiative shifts. 'There's already a shortfall of doctors in the UK. We're a skeleton service anyway. There's an epidemic of GPs retiring early. Medical school applications are going down. 'Issues like this will make it worse. They already are.' Both the NHS Business Services Authority and the British Medical Association declined to comment on individual cases. Quilter has offered to work on Dr Creaney's case pro bono.
