PensionsOct 19 2020

Doctors face litany of pension admin failings as compensation issued

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
Doctors face litany of pension admin failings as compensation issued

Doctors are up in arms over a history of pension administration shortcomings in the lumbering NHS Pension Scheme, some of which are still surfacing.

Capita, responsible for the delivery of NHS England’s primary care support services since September 2015, has been accused of a litany of failings.

According to the British Medical Association, these include processing errors leading to incorrect allocations and records of contributions, locum GP pension payments not being made on time, and employer contributions being deducted for staff that have already left.

GP trainees not being enrolled to the scheme on time, and members suffering tax implications of incorrect records are also cited among grievances with the scheme.

NHS England and Primary Care Support England have promised improvements in response to recent outcry. However, services still fall short, according to the BMA and others.

Dr Nick Grundy, chairman of GP Survival said: “I know of dozens of cases where information has gone missing, and where members have been left unable to understand their pension position, their tax liabilities, or plan for their financial future.”

Dr Grundy believes this is due to the rapid closure of local pension offices dealing with scheme administration after Capita took over the contract in 2015, at which point information may have been lost.

He added the scheme’s online portal “doesn't work, meaning many doctors sent forms in by post”.

Cash unaccounted for

Dr Grundy suggested lost forms from postal processes had led to a situation first reported by GP publication Pulse, where a large amount of unallocated pension contributions was revealed to be sitting in NHS England bank accounts. Capita has said it works to solve any payments submitted without a clear reference number.

Locums had the worst experience. Dr Grundy said: “If they work four different practices in a month, they have to submit five forms each month — ie, 60 a year. A proportion of these inevitably go missing because the system is so dysfunctional.”

Some GPs have been asked to find payslips from 20 years ago. “The problem is absolutely rife,” he concluded.

In response to the claims that problems are ongoing, a Capita spokesperson said: “PCSE continues to work closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement, and other partners, to improve GPs’ pension records.

“Historically, it has been challenging for GPs to submit the correct information, and we would receive forms that were filled in incorrectly or with data missing. PCSE will always work with GPs to correct these issues and help get their records complete.”

The spokesperson added: “Last year, we launched an amnesty with NHSEI that allowed GPs to submit missing certificates from their pension records going back 15 years.

"This was a successful project and more than 65,000 certificates were provided to bring GPs’ records up to date, but the amnesty continues as there are still certificates outstanding and we would encourage GPs to submit these to us.”

Doctors left disappointed

Despite the recent efforts to clean up the scheme’s administration, a history of inadequate administration has soured the relationship with members. 

A damning 2018 report from the National Audit Office found fault with both Capita and NHS England, concluding: “There are problems with the completeness of GP pension records, including missing documents and inaccurate data, some of which pre-date the contract with Capita.” 

Toni Hazell is a GP in London, one of the many affected by PCSE losing great tracts of historical data. She said: “About five years ago, I tried to log on to the Total Rewards screen and got a totally blank screen. It is slightly disconcerting because the NHS pension is second only to my house as my biggest financial investment.

“Capita did a deep dive investigation of it. The money was all eventually found, but it was discovered that I had overpaid for about four years around 2010, about £4,500. In order to sort this out, they sent me what they had on file.”

Ms Hazell said her “obsessive” approach to keeping payslips and other documents allowed her to correct errors in the spreadsheet sent to her, but that she was told that, for everything predating 2010, “unless you send us all your payslips, we can’t do anything. We don’t have that information”.

Her pension record is now up to date but she is claiming compensation. “I spent hours and hours, probably days on this. Trying to scan 15 years of payslips on a home scanner is utterly ridiculous. It is just ludicrous.”

Compensation for years of hassle

A Midlands GP said she was wrongly informed that she had not been a member of the NHS Pension Scheme since November 2016. “I was gobsmacked. I had been paying in thousands of pounds in contributions and all of a sudden I was told I wasn’t a member,” she says.

“I was in tears. I can’t believe you have a system where someone submits thousands of pounds of pension contributions, and you don’t even know where they have gone.

“Fortunately, I had filed all those forms carefully in chronological order. My accountant had to scan those forms in and email them across. We have to prove the money had gone; that was difficult.” 

The problem took two years to sort out, with the GP incurring added accountancy fees of £1,400.

“I still can’t go online and look at my pension statement. I can’t go on Total Rewards and find out what I will get if I retire next year,” the GP said, adding that she has been offered £500 in compensation, but is yet to accept. 

Dr Heath, a GP working in southern England who worked as a locum in 2016-17, said: “You send off these cheques and they don’t give you receipts. You send an email asking ‘can I just check my contributions?’ and they don’t respond.

“It took a while to get a response out of them. Maybe a year or so. Then when I did get a response, they had lost the money I had given them. It was thousands.”

Dr Heath said he had accepted compensation from the scheme — £1,000 made on an ex gratia basis in connection with the delay in resolving matters in relation to his pension record. However, with the complaint dating back to 2016-17, “I have only just received the cheque for compensation”, he said.

Stephanie Hawthorne is a freelance writer for FTAdviser's sister title Pensions Expert