Your NHS Pension since 1 April 2022

The government has announced new forecasted deadlines for Remediable Service Statements

This announcement sets out deadlines for when NHS Pensions will send Remediable Service Statements (RSS) to members affected by the Public Service Pensions Remedy (also called the McCloud Remedy). More information can be found on our When you'll make your remedy choice web page.

Since 1 April 2022, all active members are part of the 2015 NHS Pension Scheme, regardless of age.

If you were an active member of the 1995/2008 Scheme, you automatically moved to the 2015 Scheme and have been building up benefits in this Scheme since then.

The 1995 and 2008 Sections of the 1995/2008 Scheme closed on 31 March 2022. You keep all the pension benefits you built up in these Sections. These benefits will be paid when you retire, along with the benefits you build up in the 2015 Scheme from 1 April 2022.

When you claim your pension, it may include up to 3 different parts of the NHS Pension Scheme.

How your pension benefits are calculated

During your NHS career, you may have been a member of more than one NHS Pension Scheme. When you claim your pension, your total monthly payment could include benefits you earned in the 1995 Section, 2008 Section and the 2015 NHS Pension Scheme.

When you can claim your benefits

You can claim your pension benefits at:

age 60 for your 1995 Section benefits without any reductions, or 55 if you're a Special Class member
age 65 for your 2008 Section benefits
age 65 or your state pension age, whichever is later, for your 2015 Scheme benefits

showing how your pension will include any benefits you’ve claimed from the 1995 Section and the 2008 Section and the 2015 Scheme in one monthly payment.

When you take your pension, you'll receive one monthly payment. This will include any benefits you have claimed from the 1995 Section, the 2008 Section and the 2015 Scheme.

You can find out more about how your pension benefits are calculated in each Section or Scheme in the 1995/2008 member guide (PDF: 5.13MB) and 2015 member guide (PDF: 2.64MB).

You’ll keep any pension benefits you’ve earned in legacy schemes

If you were a member of the 1995/2008 Scheme, any service you earned before 1 April 2022 stays in the legacy scheme. You can access these benefits in the same way and at the same time as you could before.

You can find out more about when you can access your benefits on our Applying for your pension webpage.

You will not lose your final salary link if you have one

If you have a final salary link for your 1995/2008 Scheme benefits, you keep it as long as you do not have a break in membership of more than 5 years. This means your 1995/2008 benefits will be calculated using your final salary at retirement.

If you've built up practitioner benefits, these are also protected at retirement. They are calculated using arrangements equivalent to a final salary link, as long as you do not have a break in membership of more than 5 years.

Benefits built from 1 April 2022 are in the 2015 Scheme

Any pension benefits you’ve built from 1 April 2022 are in the 2015 NHS Pension Scheme. You can find out how this Scheme works on our Understanding your benefits in the 2015 Scheme webpage.

We wrote to all affected members

If you were a member of the 1995/2008 Scheme, you moved to the 2015 Scheme on 1 April 2022. We wrote to affected members in January 2022 with information about the changes.

The letter explained how the changes could affect:

Special Class or MHO status

The 2015 Scheme does not have a mental health officer (MHO) or Special Class provision. If you already have MHO or Special Class status, these arrangements will remain along with any 1995 Section benefits you built up. If you continue to meet the qualifying rules, you can claim your 1995 Section benefits from age 55.

Find out if you qualify for MHO and Special Class status.

Additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) for additional pension or added years

If you paid additional voluntary contributions (AVCs), your payments continued when you moved to the 2015 Scheme on 1 April 2022. You could pay AVCs until one of the following happened:

your contract ended
a 12-month break in membership started
you retired

If you were a 1995 Section member and your chosen birthday had passed or was less than 6 months after you moved to the 2015 Scheme, we previously wrote to you explaining how you have your AVC benefits paid without retiring. You had 3 months to tell us what you’d like to do.

You can find out more about Increasing your pension.

Applications for ill health retirement

If we received your application on or before 31 March 2022, and you were still an active member of the pension scheme on 1 April 2022, we assessed your application using the 1995/2008 Scheme rules and the 2015 Scheme rules.

If we received your application after 31 March 2022 and you were still an active member on 1 April 2022, it was considered under the 2015 Scheme rules.

You can find out more about ill health retirement.

Annual allowance and lifetime allowance

If you were affected by the annual allowance, we sent you two pension savings statements for the 2021/2022 tax year so you could see how each part of your pension had grown. One statement covered your pension growth in the 1995/2008 Scheme and the other covered any pension you earned in the 2015 Scheme between 1 April 2022 and 5 April 2022.

If you had lifetime allowance protection agreed with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), it may have been affected when you moved into the 2015 Scheme. If you had enhanced or fixed protection, this could have ended once you started contributing to the 2015 Scheme.

You can find out more about the impact on enhanced or fixed protection.

Finding more information

If you have any questions, you’ll find more information on our knowledge base. We update this regularly.

Read our 2015 Scheme member guide (PDF: 2.64MB) for more information on the 2015 NHS Pension Scheme, or visit our Member Hub.