Who can join the scheme?

Anyone directly employed by the NHS can become members of the NHS pension scheme, this includes those employed by NHS trusts, general practice (GP) staff and medical, dental and ophthalmic practitioners.

Those who work for employers that have been awarded Direction Body status can also join (this includes social enterprises and charities.)

Membership of the scheme is voluntary and employees can decide not to join the scheme or can leave the scheme at any time.

About the scheme

Significant changes can into effect on 1 April 2008 which means that there are now two different sections of the NHS pension scheme – the 1995 section and the 2008 section.

The  enclosed guide Members Guide - SD Guide  explains the main features of each section.

Pensions Auto Enrolment

As the population grows older most of us can look forward to around 20 years in retirement. This is good news, but millions of us are not saving enough to have the level of income we are likely to

want. The State Pension is a foundation for retirement; today the full basic State Pension is £110.15 per week for a single person.

In line with Government requirement, to encourage more people to save for their retirement employers will enrol their eligible workers into a workplace pension if they’re not already in one. The effective date is dependent upon the size of employer.

Employees will be automatically enrolled if they are:

• aged between 22 and state pension age
• work in the UK
• have income tax and National Insurance contributions deducted from their wages
• likely to have gross earnings over £9,440 in a year

You can choose to opt out of the scheme if you want to, but if you stay in you will have your own pension which you get when you retire.

This exercise will be carried out every three years.

Links from this page to the following sections:

• Member Benefits
• Contribution Rates
• Opting Out
• Pension Estimate Requests
• Retirement Benefits
• Alternative pension schemes