Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which groups of NHS workers, excluding nurses, are entitled to Special Class Status; and whether those groups have been subject to changes to their retirement age.

Special Class Status is a reserved right that permits eligible members of the 1995 NHS Pension Scheme to retire from age 55 with an unreduced pension. The right is available for nurses, physiotherapists, midwives, health visitors and mental health officers who joined the scheme before 6 March 1995 and have not subsequently had a break in membership of over five years. It is a conditional right, which in the case of nurses requires the individual to be employed continuously in a nursing role for the five years immediately preceding the date of retirement.

The right was withdrawn for new members from 6 March 1995. Staff in the 1995 NHS Pension Scheme who did not acquire or satisfy the conditions for Special Class Status have a normal scheme retirement age of 60. Subsequent reforms saw new NHS Pension Schemes introduced in 2008 and 2015 with a later retirement age of 65 and state pension age respectively for all staff in those schemes.

Upon introduction of the 2015 NHS Pension Scheme, transitional arrangements permitted staff closest to retirement to continue accruing pension in the closed 1995 Scheme. A small number of 1995 Scheme members with Special Class Status were too young to benefit from this protection and therefore transferred to the 2015 Scheme for future service. Such members can claim their 1995 Scheme pension accrued prior to transfer, on a Special Class basis from age 55 should they satisfy the conditions. The pension built up under the 2015 has a retirement age equal to the member’s state pension age.