The government has concluded on the ‘pensions flexibility’ consultation, ruling that no flexibility will introduced to the NHS pension schemes, despite overwhelming feedback of the punitive tax charges medical professionals are facing.
Many doctors were hoping the see proposed measures introduced which would allow a change of the rate at which NHS pensions grow in order to mitigate against annual allowance breaches.
The tax implications caused by the tapered annual allowance have had a significant impact on the NHS workforce with consultants taking the logical step to adjust their workloads accordingly. Sadly, the government has rejected industry advice that penalising a workforce tied into making fixed contributions could have a detrimental effect.