Recommendation 15

Pensions play an important role in the overall remuneration package employers offer to recruit and retain staff. There is evidence that pensions affect how people chose to work which may impact frontline services. For example, the interaction between the NHS Pension Scheme rules and the tax system means a large number of doctors have reduced their working hours, opted out of the scheme, or retired early.31 A recent survey of 8,000 members by the British Medical Association (BMA)—a trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom—showed that 72% of respondents may choose to retire earlier and 61% would reduce their working hours because of tax rules.32 Previous BMA surveys have shown that more than half of surgeons in Wales were advised by an accountant or financial adviser to work fewer hours in the NHS. HM Treasury has made some changes to the tax system in order to support senior clinicians, but ultimately doctors need to make an informed choice about their working patterns.33