The government has concluded its consultation into when doctors need to decide which pension benefits they want to claim as ‘compensation’ after moving to the 2015 NHS pension scheme and being deemed to have been subject to age discrimination.
Doctors will not need to decide which set of pension scheme benefits they wish to receive until their time of retirement, rather than having to choose now.
The so-called McCloud Judgement (named after the judges who first sought the age discrimination trial) has concluded that doctors have the right to make a ‘deferred choice’ of which benefits to take for the ‘remedy period’ rather than making an immediate choice.
This means they can decide upon the most beneficial option for them – the pension benefits from their previous 1995 / 2008 pension scheme or those from the 2015 scheme – but will not have to make this decision until drawing their pension. The remedy period will run from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022.
While this is generally accepted to be the most beneficial option for most scheme members, it does not make the NHS pension any less complicated! Those affected will need to navigate the calculations needed which may include unravelling years of tax charges and annual allowance figures. Please contact us for help with this issue.
