The BMA criticised pension arrangements in 2019, when Matt Hancock was health secretary, saying it was in senior doctors’ best interests to work part time. In a letter to the government the doctors’ union highlighted that a senior doctor working a 3.5-day week could receive an annual pension of £65,000, whereas working a five-day week would result in a pension of just £55,000.
Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay has now proposed NHS pension changes that aim to help retain experienced NHS clinicians and remove the barriers to staff returning from retirement. The proposals include introducing flexibility to allow retired and partially retired staff to return to work, or increase their working hours, without having payments to their pension reduced or suspended.
