Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many complaints have been lodged about the delivery of NHS Pensions in the last year.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) administers the NHS Pension Scheme and operates a complaints process as well as a two-step Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) procedure. If a complainant has exhausted the IDR process and is not satisfied with the outcome, they may also be able to approach the Pensions Ombudsman.

In the 12 months to the end of August 2023, the NHSBSA received 813 complaints, 1,201 IDRs at Stage One, 295 IDRs at Stage Two and 55 cases referred from the Pensions Ombudsman. Some of the complaints the NHSBSA receive may progress to an IDR at Stage One. However, not all IDRs at Stage One originate as complaints as some complainants embark straight onto the IDR process.

These complaints need to be seen in the context of the number of members in the NHS Pension Scheme. As of 31 March 2023, there were 1,815,310 active members, 772,560 deferred members and 1,098,388 pensioner members.