Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that additional tax payments as a result of pension growth are not disproportionately impacting NHS staff.

The Government is committed to ensuring that hard-working NHS staff do not find themselves reducing their work commitments due to the interaction between their pay, their pension, and the relevant tax regime.

99 per cent of pension savers make annual contributions below £40,000, the level of standard annual allowance which has applied from 2014-15. To ensure that defined benefit scheme members are not unduly affected by the annual allowance (for example if their pension rights increase after a promotion), the Government allows up to three years of unused annual allowance to be carried forward. The Government also increased the two thresholds above which the tapered annual allowance applies were each raised by £90,000 in April 2020.

Individuals who breach the annual allowance on tax-relieved pension savings can also use an option called ‘scheme pays’, under which they can require their pension scheme to pay their annual allowance tax charge now (in return for an actuarially fair reduction in their pension), provided that the annual allowance charge is at least £2,000 and they have exceeded the annual allowance of £40,000. In England and Wales, the NHS Pension Scheme goes further, allowing scheme pays to be used on any annual allowance charges relating to accrual in that scheme.

The reforms to the annual allowance and lifetime allowance made since 2010 are expected to save £6 billion per year, and allow pension savers to build significant retirement savings tax free, while also ensuring that the highest earning pension savers do not receive a disproportionate benefit from pensions tax relief.