NHS managers to pay hundreds more a year towards pensions

A consultation on changes to the NHS pension scheme states contributions to pensions will rise by up to 2.4 percentage points in 2012-13.

All NHS employees earning over £15,000 will pay a bigger proportion of their salaries towards pensions, with those earning more than £110,273 seeing the biggest rise.

This would force a manager earning £80,000 to pay an extra £1,116 a year after tax relief, while someone on a £130,000 salary would pay an extra £1,824. This figure will be even higher for many trust chief executives, who earn an average of £158,800 according to figures published in May.

The government wants contributions to rise even more, by an average of 3.2 percentage points across the public sector by 2014-15.

Separate discussions over the level of contributions in future years and structure of public sector pension schemes, such as whether they should continue to offer “final salary” pensions, are ongoing.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, who newspapers this week revealed wrote a leaked letter to the Treasury warning against reducing “gold standard” public sector pensions, announced the consultation.

He said: “What will not change is that the NHS pension will remain one of the very best available, providing a guaranteed pension level for all employees – something that very few private sector employers still offer. We will also completely protect the pensions people have already earned. None of the rights people have accrued will be affected.

“However, [Independent Public Service PensionsCommission chairman] Lord Hutton made it absolutely clear that there needs to be a fairer balance between what employees and taxpayers contribute to public sector pensions. With people living longer and healthier lives, the status quo is untenable and unfair. It is entirely reasonable that people pay more to receive the benefit for longer.”