Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of GPs wait over (a) six months, (b) 12 months and (c) 18 months to receive their NHS Pension scheme pension after submitting their AW8 form to Primary Care Support England, delivered by Capita.

NHS Pensions rules prevent an AW8 form from being processed earlier than 105 days before the retirement date. However, it is not unusual for AW8s to be submitted to Primary Care Support England (PCSE) at an earlier date. General practitioners (GPs) and non-GP partners are responsible for ensuring all pension administration for the duration of their NHS Pension membership is updated before AW8 forms are submitted.

Every GP now has access to PCSE Online. This provides transparency and allows all information to be checked before AW8 forms are submitted. PCSE is developing a retirement guide with the British Medical Association and NHS Pensions to assist GPs with this process.

Within six months of PCSE being permitted to process an application upon receipt of an AW8 form, 78% of retirements are processed. The remaining 22% processed after six months are either awaiting more information from the GP or approval from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). If a GP wishes to retire from the National Performers List, notification can be given through PCSE Online. The Performers List Regulations requests three months’ notice of the intention to retire. GP partners and principals require approval from the CCG.

Upon receipt of the AW8 form and once 105 calendar days before the retirement date has been reached, the entirety of the pension scheme member’s administration is checked for completeness and accuracy. Approximately 11% of applications require further information from the member to ensure their record is correct before it can be progressed and all applications require approval either by the CCG or GP practice.