The BMA is calling on the body that provides NHS pensions savings statements to report itself to the Pensions Regulator over ‘unacceptable’ errors that mean many individuals are now unable to complete self-assessment tax returns on time.
The union has called on the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) to urgently rectify the mistakes in pensions savings statements (PSS), after uncovering in recent days that at least 757 doctors’ have received inaccurate information.
PSSs are sent to pension scheme members whose benefits have grown by more than the annual allowance.
However, the errors include miscalculations of pension savings – specifically inaccurate opening values of benefits for 2023/24, which are distorting the amounts pension pots have grown, the BMA has said.
This issue is making it ‘impossible for doctors to accurately report their tax status to HMRC’, and potentially unable to complete self-assessment tax returns due in less than three weeks before 31 January 2025, it added.
Although 757 statements are known to be incorrect, the BMA has suggested it could be more since it picked up mistakes in 100% of sampled pension savings statements.
In a letter to the chief executive officer of NHSBSA Michael Brodie, sent at the end of last week, Dr Vishal Sharma, chair of the BMA’s pensions committee, said this situation was ‘completely unacceptable’, pointing out that members who are unable to complete self-assessment tax returns by the set deadline as a result ‘may suffer financial detriment and further distress’.
He wrote: ‘It is incredibly concerning that NHSBSA has let its members down again in what should be a standard business as usual process. Such errors should have been picked up in internal quality assurance processes, long before PSSs were sent to all members.’
The most disappointing thing is that these ‘gross and obvious’ mistakes could have been avoided, Dr Sharma also said, while adding: ‘We feel that NHS doctors are being completely failed by their pension scheme administrator.
‘The NHS pension is a major and valuable part of our reward package and yet being an NHS pensions scheme member has become a considerable source of stress and anguish. For the most part, this is not because of the pension scheme itself, but due to the exceedingly poor administration by NHSBSA.’
Dr Sharma said the since the NHSBSA has failed in its obligation to support members of the NHS pension it should report itself to the Pensions Regulator.
‘We fully expect the Pensions Regulator to hold NHSBSA to account’, he wrote, stating that the BMA ‘is also mindful’ that HMRC guidance sets out that scheme administrators may be liable for penalties for failing to provide accurate and timely information.
In addition, the BMA has also called on the NHSBSA to urgently provide extra ‘ring-fenced resources’ to support NHS pensions activity and improve its services, given that ‘it oversees the largest number of annual allowance tax payers in the UK’ and the issues involved are complex.
The voicing of these concerns by the BMA comes not long after it emerged that NHS pension members affected by the McCloud remedy also suffered delays receiving their remedial pensions savings statements, required for them to complete a tax reassessment process and potentially claim rebates.
‘Tens of thousands’ of these statements contained errors too, Dr Sharma wrote in his letter, highlighting that the current problem with PSSs is ‘compounding’ the problem.
The BMA said it is writing to its members in England and Wales to make them aware of the inaccuracies in the 2023/24 PSSs, which NHSBSA has issued.
