National Health Service Pension Scheme (NHSPS) membership can be continued for any staff who have participated in the scheme in the preceding 12 months. The College cannot offer the scheme to anyone who would be joining the scheme as a new member.
The NHS Scheme
The NHSPS is a public sector pension scheme and membership can be continued for any staff who have participated in the scheme in the preceding 12 months. The College cannot offer the scheme to anyone who would be joining the scheme as a new member. All grades are eligible under the above criteria.
Please note that you must complete part 1 of application form SD65 and return it to the Pensions Office within 3 months of starting with the College. The NHS Pensions Agency require you to fill in this form if you wish to continue in the NHSPS during your employment with the College. If you do not complete the SD65 your application will not be accepted by the Pensions Agency and your contributions will be transferred to the appropriate College Scheme or refunded.
If you are an existing NHS Pension Scheme member your current benefits will be based on either:
The NHSPS is approved by the Inland Revenue and is contracted-out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS). An Explanatory Booklet should have been provided when you joined the NHSPS, which provides a more detailed explanation of the scheme (If you require another copy please contact the College Pensions Office), the key features of which are as follows:
Please note that the facility to purchase added years was withdrawn with effect from 1 April 2008 and has been replaced by the Additional Pension (AP) Scheme. The Increasing your Benefits Factsheet gives further details.
Your contributions to the NHSPS qualify for tax relief at your highest marginal rate. The relief is given at source through the payroll for your NHS contributions and Prudential and Standard Life FSAVCs. Contributions paid to any other Free Standing AVC arrangement are not usually deducted through Payroll, so do not attract tax relief at source. Your provider can tell you more about how you obtain tax relief on these contributions.
Please note the tax-free cash at retirement is in addition to pension.
Other Benefits
A pension of 1/54th of each year's pensionable earnings revalued by CPI plus 1.5%.
1. Immediate life cover – a lump sum equal to two times your relevant pensionable pay together with a pension for your dependants should you die before retirement whilst in employment. 2. An inflation-proofed pension – regular income, plus a tax-free lump sum (section 2015 members will have to commute pension for a lump sum), when you retire based on your years and salary within the scheme whilst a member. 3. Long-term illness cover (after two years' membership in aggregate) – an inflation-proofed pension for life, and a tax-free lump sum (section 2015 members will have to commute pension for a lump sum) if you can't go on working because of long-term illness. 4. Job move simplicity – moving from one NHS member institution to another is straight forward. 5. Quality benefits – a public sector scheme recognised as providing generous terms which overall are unlikely to be matched elsewhere. 6. Flexibility – you can, depending on circumstances, start receiving your pension before the scheme's normal retirement of SPA. 2015 section members can opt to draw down their benefits pre-retirement.
Please note that nothing stated in this summary can override the Rules of the Scheme.
If you have any queries, please contact the Pensions Office at pension@qmul.ac.uk.
NHS Helpful links
NHSPA website
AskNHS
NHS Member Hub