Dear member,
You will have seen in the press that the tireless lobbying by the BMA on pensions has paid off and the DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) and Treasury have announced a consultation on the pension regulations which are landing GPs and consultants with huge tax bills.
This is incredibly welcome news. However I am also aware that for many sessional GPs the thought of hitting the annual or lifetime pension allowances never crosses their minds. In reality the much more pressing issue for locum GPs is annualisation and the iniquitous overcharging that has been a part of the DHSC/HMRC pension policy since April this year.
In our series of blogs we set out the background to this. Broadly speaking the Government has chosen to unfairly assume that every locum GP works 365 days a year and ‘annualises’ all earnings to this amount. Obviously this is not the case and grossly inflates figures above actual incomes, penalising doctors by putting them into the highest pension contribution tier.
It is particularly unfair that colleagues who work the fewest hours stand to lose the most.
The sessional GPs committee and GPs committee are working to lobby the Government to urgently address this issue. We hope that recent announcements indicate a new willingness on the Government’s part to cooperate and review these unfair pension policies. I assure you that we will continue to exert every pressure on them.
In the meantime read our existing guidance