About Pension Tension

  1. The above figures are for illustrative purposes only and are based on “typical” career profiles for Consultants, GPs, Specialty Doctors and Associate Specialists.
  2. Additional contributions and benefits paid over retirement are shown in “today’s prices”. That is, future RPI is assumed to be nil. Future CPI is assumed to be 1% lower than RPI.
  3. For the projection of pension from retirement, future RPI is assumed to be 4.6% pa (in line with September 2010 RPI) and future CPI is assumed to be 3.6% pa, i.e. 1% lower than RPI. (Actual CPI as at September 2010 was 3.1% pa.)
  4. This modeller assumes the proposed scheme will be a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) scheme with an accrual rate of 1/54ths and revaluation before retirement in line with CPI plus 1.5%.
  5. The Normal Retirement Age in the proposed scheme is assumed to be State Pension Age (SPA) and has been based on SPA for males under the Pensions Act 2011 and changes announced in the Autumn Statement. SPA has been rounded to the nearest age.
  6. The modeller assumes that changes to pension accrual and contributions will increase immediately. In reality, pension accrual is likely to change with effect from April 2015 and contributions will increase over three years from April 2012 to April 2014.
  7. In determining the total benefits paid the modeller assumes an age of death of 80.
  8. Please note that benefits are being compared at your Normal Pension Age for the current scheme.
  9. For retirement before NPA in the proposed scheme, the pension is assumed to reduce in line with the reduction factors currently used in the 2008 Scheme based on the number of years early.
  10. Doctors with MHO status are protected from any scheme changes if they are age 45 or over as at 1 April 2012, and have tapering protection if they are aged 41.5 and over on that date.

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Pension Tension
A doctor's guide to the government changes to your pension

Something horrible is happening. Under government plans, most doctors will have to work longer and pay much more for their pensions. Find out exactly how worried you should be!

Begin
Pension Tension

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Your rising contribution

Under the new scheme you could pay up to

more into your pension over your working life.

The amount deducted from your pay for your pension will rise sharply in 2012, and could be as high as 14.5% by 2014.

Current scheme

Proposed scheme

Working longer

The government wants to increase the
normal retirement age in the NHS
so you could have to work until you are
before you can draw your full pension
68
The date when you might retire:

What will you
get in return?

The government wants to move all NHS staff onto a new career average scheme.

If this goes ahead, your total pension benefits over an average retirement could be . Your annual pension could be £ compared to £, but you would lose your right to an automatic lump sum on retirement.

And because you'll be working longer, you'll receive your pension for fewer years.

Monitoring
the change

As of April 2011, payments to people drawing a public sector pension rise in line with the Consumer Price Index rather than the Retail Price Index. This is how much worse off the change could make you over twenty years of retirement.

£85,000
RPI
(Retail Price Index)
£48,000
CPI
(Consumer Price Index)

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e-petition

Join more than 14,000 people who have already signed our pensions e-petition.

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