More than 300,000 NHS staff affected by the McCloud remedy – including practice managers, GPs and other practice staff – are still awaiting key information about their pensions leaving them uncertain whether payments they are receiving are correct or unable to make decisions about their financial future.
According to Freedom of Information data obtained by Wesleyan, a total of 300,062 NHS pension members affected by McCloud but who are already retired and are receiving pension benefits are still awaiting pension recalculations that inform them if they are receiving the right amount of payments.
With a total of 303, 225 members originally awaiting recalculation figures, this means that 99% are still in limbo, and don’t yet know whether they are receiving the correct pension amount or make informed decisions about their McCloud choice, which could affect both their NHS pension payments and personal pension planning, according to Wesleyan.
Under the McCloud remedy implemented to remove the age discrimination that was judged to have arisen in the NHS pension scheme, the 1.1 million affected members can make a choice of pension benefits for the period between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 (known as the ‘remedy period’).
Members have the option of receiving 1995/2008 scheme pension benefits or 2015 scheme pension benefits for the remedy period.
But a decision can only be made with information provided in a document called a remediable service statement, which sets how the choice they make affects the value of their pension benefits.
Delays in sending out remediable service statements (RSS) were flagged last year with the NHS Business Services Authority issuing a new timetable for their issue between July 2025 and December this year.
However, Wesleyan FOI data shows that 296,616 are still awaiting to be sent their RSS.
In addition, the processing of retirement applications by the NHS Pension scheme is longer for GPs than hospital doctors, says Wesleyan.
Average processing times for GPs since 2020 is 56 days compared with to 45 days for hospital doctors.
Madeleine Dowling, technical team lead at Wesleyan, said the delays are’ creating genuine financial uncertainty’.
‘For those who have already retired, there’s the unsettling reality of not knowing whether they’re receiving the correct pension amount. For those still planning retirement, the delays are forcing them to make decisions without accurate information, at a time when workforce pressures are already intense and the NHS can’t afford to lose experienced doctors to preventable administrative delays.
She added: ‘We’re seeing clients not able to get the paperwork they need, or when they do, critical information is missing or incorrect. We even know of some people who are having to retire without accurate pension information – an unacceptable situation that’s becoming increasingly common.’
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