Nhs Pension Scheme · CAS-54702-Y2X3

CAS-54702-Y2X3

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Dr U

Scheme NHS Pension Scheme (the NHSPS)

Respondent NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA)

Outcome

Complaint summary

Background information, including submissions from the parties The sequence of events is not in dispute, so I have only set out the salient points. I acknowledge there were other exchanges of information between all the parties.

Dr U’s date of birth is 28 October 1948. He was a member of the 1995 section of the NHSPS. The NHSPS is governed by regulations; the regulations relevant to Dr U’s case being the National Health Service Pension Scheme Regulations 1995 (the Regulations).

1 CAS-54702-Y2X3 NHS BSA records show that he first joined the NHSPS in 1999/2000. Dr U does not appear to contest this.

Dr U says that since he started working in the UK, he has only worked for the NHS, either directly or through locum agencies, such as Medacs, JCJ Locum and UMR. NHS BSA keeps the records of the direct roles and the locum agencies keep their own records.

2 CAS-54702-Y2X3 Details of NHS BSA’s membership records for Dr U are shown in Appendix 2.

Dr U has provided a copy of a bank statement which confirms that he received £24,443.23 into his account on 1 November 2013. The payment reference was ‘JIMB NHS MNTHLY A’.

In February and June 2014, NHS BSA received notification from University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) that Dr U wished to resume active membership of the NHSPS. NHS BSA declined his further membership application and confirmed to the Trust that this was not possible due to Dr U’s retirement in 2013 and the Trust was instructed to return any contributions it may have collected to Dr U.

It appears that in 2017 Dr U faced several issues with regard to his pension.

He says that, in July 2017, a pension figure of £31,602 was generated, he believes by NHS BSA, and added to the pension shown on his tax code notice. This created a tax liability of approximately £5,000.

A tax code notice from HMRC for 2017/2018 shows Dr U as having a Personal Allowance of £4,754, less the State Pension £4,527 and less an adjustment to rate bands of £31,829 giving a net figure of £31,602 to be added to wages, salary or pension. The adjustment to the rate bands was because Dr U had more than one job or pension and HMRC estimated that some of his income was liable to higher rate tax.

Then, in August 2017, his pension credit was stopped because it was claimed he was entitled to receive a private personal pension of £224.00 per week. He was shocked to learn that he had a personal pension that paid him this amount. This appeared to be generated by Pension Capital (the Pension Capital) of £121,520.19 which he had been entitled to since 7 August 2013

Dr U believed the Pension Capital had been built up through contracted out NICs paid between 1997 and 2017. He says that, following a search through documents sent to him by HMRC, he discovered that the contracted out NIC scheme was managed by NHS BSA.

NHS BSA says it had received no further communication from any party until March 2019, when Dr U contacted it about his benefits in payment.

On 21 October 2019, NHS BSA wrote to Dr U to confirm that his pay and tax figures since 2013 had been as follows:

Tax year Tax code Pay Tax beginning 6 April

2013 0531L £2,188.17 £ -

2014 0587L £3,758.82 £ -

3 CAS-54702-Y2X3 2015 0647L £3,807.83 £ -

2016 0657L £3,810.86 £ -

2017 0697L £23,061.05* £3,372.80

2018 001278L £3,955.77 £ -

* HMRC Schedule dated 1 April 2020 shows £3,846 being from NHS pension.

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NHS BSA said its records of Dr U’s membership on which his retirement benefits were based were as follows:-

ID Period Membership

01 22/11/1999 to 30/06/2000 0 years 221 days

02 11/02/2002 to 03/10/2002 0 years 235 days

03 14/10/2002 to 04/02/2003 0 years 114 days Membership (A)

04 06/05/2003 to 05/08/2003 0 years 092 days*

05 11/08/2003 to 02/11/2003 0 years 084 days

6 CAS-54702-Y2X3 06 10/05/2004 to 30/09/2004 0 years 144 days

Total (A) 2 years 60 days (890 days)

* Membership transferred from NHS Northern Ireland

01/10/2004 to 31/07/2007 Break in membership

07 01/08/2007 to 31/10/2007 0 years 092 days

08 18/02/2008 to 17/08/2008 0 years 181 days

09 15/09/2008 to 09/04/2009 0 years 207 days

10 10/04/2009 to 05/10/2009 0 years 179 days Membership (B)

11 04/01/2010 to15/08/2011 1 years 224 days

12 03/01/2012 to 04/07/2012 0 years 183 days

13 01/08/2012 to 06/08/2013 1 years 006 days

Total (B) 4 years 342 days (1802 days)

Total membership overall (A+B) 7 years 137 days (2692 days) = (C)

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Adjudicator’s Opinion

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Dr U did not accept the Adjudicator’s Opinion and the complaint was passed to me to consider. Dr U provided his further comments which do not change the outcome.

Dr U provided copies of documents that were already on file and which related to:

• his income tax;

• his Class A contracted in NICs history;

• the history of his earnings and contributions paid to the NHSPS; and

• a schedule supporting a claim for a refund of NICs between the figure Dr U says was collected and the amount shown on HMRC’s website.

He says that the fact my jurisdiction does not include DWP, HMRC, Middlesbrough Council, and NICs was not sufficient reason not to uphold his complaints. 15 CAS-54702-Y2X3 He also says that some of the communication of the Citizens Advice Bureau, Middlesbrough, corroborated his evidence.

He maintains that there are clear areas of discrepancy in evidence between DWP, HMRC and Middlesbrough Council regarding who took custody of his Category D contracted out NICs. He says that these are unaccounted for and that neither NHS BSA, nor the DWP, has taken responsibility for the funds contributed from 1997 to 2017, even if such contributions were at the reduced rates.

I agree with the Adjudicator’s Opinion and note the additional points raised by Dr U.

Ombudsman’s decision As the Adjudicator made clear in his Opinion, those aspects of Dr U’s complaint relating to the State Pension Scheme, Pension Credit, Universal Credit and other state benefits, are outside my jurisdiction. I therefore cannot consider these and I have only looked at those matters relating to Dr U’s complaint against NHS BSA.

I do not uphold Dr U’s complaint.

Anthony Arter

Pensions Ombudsman 14 December 2021

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Employers’ Contracted-Out National Insurance Contributions passed on to HMRC and then to NHS Pensions Scheme

Date Hospital/Trust Total Contracted Contracted Pensionable Out NICs Out NICs Pay Employer Employee

22/11/2019- 5843 – University £13,712.23 £1,744.68 £680.33 30/06/2000 Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

11/02/2002- 6059-Cwn Taf £17,824.72 £1,285.41 £501.48 03/10/2002 Morgannwg University Local Health Board

14/10/2002- 4815-Dorset £9,924.77 £935.53 £316.84 04/02/2003 County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

11/08/2003- 3231-County £9,577.20 £2442.18 £744.79 02/11/2003 Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

06/05/2003- 0003-Transfer from £8,095.00 £2,425.78 £703.51 05/08/2003 Northern Ireland (Causeway Hospital)

10/05/2004- 5224-North Devon £27,530.20 £4,307.75 £1,111.56 30/09/2004 District Hospital (Cornwall & Isles of Scilly HA (Staff)

01/08/2007- 4221-Barking, £7,010.76 £744.38 £231.16 31/10/2007 Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

18/02/2008- 5841-M £14,323.18 £1,276.48 £636.70 17/08/2008 Manchester

17 CAS-54702-Y2X3 University NHS Foundation Trust

15/09/2008- 5443- £19,858.17 £4,494.24 £1,703.92 09/04/2009 SouthWarwshire Foundation Trust

10/04/2009- 3671- £18,986.51 £5,262.98 £1,737.94 05/10/2009 RotherhamNHS Foundation Trust

04/01/2010- 3472-Mid £62,673.22 £11,349.80 £4,003.99 15/08/2011 Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust

03/01/2012- 4233- Whittington £21,889.87 £2,451.44 845.64 04/07/2012 Hospital

01/08/2012- 4271-Colchester £41,821.10 £2,517.85 £680.33 06/08/2013 General

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NHS BSA records show the following membership of the NHSPS

Employer Start date End date Reckonable membership

Years Days

University Hospital of South 22/11/1999 30/06/2000 221 Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University 11/02/2002 03/10/2002 235 Local Health Board

Dorset County Hospital NHS 14/10/2002 04/02/2003 114 Foundation Trust

Transfer back in of benefits 06/05/2003 05/08/2003 92 previously transferred out of NHS Northern Ireland*

County Durham & Darlington NHS 11/08/2003 02/11/2003 84 Foundation Trust

Northern Devon Healthcare NHS 10/05/2004 30/09/2004 144 Trust

Barking. Havering & Redbridge 01/08/2007 31/10/2007 92 University Hospitals NHS Trust

Manchester University NHS 18/02/2008 17/08/2008 181 Foundation Trust

South Warwickshire Foundation 15/09/2008 09/04/2009 207 Trust

Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust 10/04/2009 05/10/2009 179

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust 04/01/2010 15/08/2011 1 224

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust 03/01/2012 04/07/2012 183

East Suffolk & North Essex NHS 01/08/2012 06/08/2013 1 6 Foundation Trust

Membership totals 7 137

• A letter, dated 3 November 2003, from Dr U to NHS BSA requested the transfer of the contribution of £514.36 that he made while working at Causeway Hospital, 19 CAS-54702-Y2X3 Coleraine from 6 May 2003 to 5 August 2003 from HSC Northern Ireland to the NHSPS.

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Extracts from the NHSPS booklet regarding rejoining.

Rejoining this Scheme before retirement

If you change jobs and have less than a years’ break you will normally, depending on your age, be able to rejoin the same section of the Scheme.

If you are eligible to rejoin the same section of this Scheme in which you have deferred benefits, after a break of 12 months or more, your benefits at retirement will be worked out in whichever of the following two ways gives the highest financial outcome for you:

• your periods of membership will be added together and your total membership and final year’s pensionable pay (or reckonable pay) will be used to work out your benefits; or • the benefits you have earned for each period of membership will be worked out separately, re- valued then added together.

If you are a Practitioner and are eligible to rejoin the same section of this Scheme after a break in membership, your Practitioner pension record will be re-activated and your pension will be based on all of your Practitioner earnings.

Rejoining this Scheme after retirement

1995 Section

If you are in receipt of an NHS pension under the 1995 Section you cannot rejoin this Scheme unless:

• you are under age 50 when you return to work and are in receipt of an ill health retirement pension or • you retired on or after 1 April 2008 and before 1 October 2009 if aged under 75.

You may be eligible to join a different NHS Pension Scheme after a waiting period. This will usually be the longer of two years from the date of your retirement or the length of any membership enhancement included in your pension calculation

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