Part Eight: Administration for eligible staff

On top of the tasks involved in helping partners and salaried GPs meet the NHS Pension Scheme administration requirements, practice managers must also follow the procedures for practice staff who are eligible to be members of the pension scheme.

All employers have general responsibilities to auto-enrol their employees into a pension scheme. For GP practices, the NHS Pension Scheme will be the default scheme.

Practices will be granted employing authority status to have access to the NHS Pension Scheme if they hold a GMS or PMS or ‘classic’ APMS contract. Practice managers and those administering practice payrolls need to keep up to date with the regulations to ensure the correct procedures are implemented and staff have the correct information in their payroll and pension records.

The following information relates to general staff employees. Part seven of this guide explains the rules for salaried GPs. Locum GPs are responsible for their own pension administration.

Pensions Online

For England and Wales, the Pensions Online (POL) portal is the facility provided by NHS Pensions where employers can maintain their employee pension records. Access to POL is via the NHS Pensions website.

In Scotland the SPPA portal Employers Data Management (EDM) is used by employers to maintain their employee’s records and this is accessed via the SPPA website.

In Northern Ireland, maintenance of employee records and practice management is via [email protected]

New starters

Provided they meet the eligibility criteria, all new staff joining the practice must be auto-enrolled into the NHS Pension Scheme on the day they start work. A staff member is eligible if they are aged between 16 and 75 and are directly employed by the practice, unless they are already taking their NHS pension benefits from the 1995 scheme. The staff member can choose to opt-out of the scheme under normal auto-enrolment rules. If they opt out or leave the scheme within two years, they are able to claim a refund of their contributions.

The joiner information is submitted via POL. Alternatively, the SS10GP form can be completed manually and sent to NHS Pensions.

Part-time staff

Some staff members might work part-time for several different NHS employers, but they can only receive pension up to a whole-time equivalent (WTE) for the role (usually but not always 37.5 hours).

Up to 30 September 2022, the rate of employee contribution is based on their WTE pensionable pay. This changes to actual pay from 1 October 2022 (see part three of this guide).

 Leavers

The practice must notify NHS Pensions if staff members leave the practice, either via POL or manually by sending a leaver spreadsheet.

Maternity/paternity/sickness absence

Staff members can choose to continue paying their pension contributions during unpaid maternity or paternity leave but not if they are on unpaid sick leave.

Redundancy

If a staff member is made redundant, they may be eligible for an early pension settlement.

Death in service and ill-health benefits

If a staff member dies, the practice must complete the death benefit forms.

When an employee has to stop working on ill-health grounds, the practice must advise them of the right to apply for ill-health retirement before they cease employment.

Record-keeping

Practices are responsible for maintaining accurate pension information for their staff concerning contributions, actual pensionable pay, part-time hours worked and what the WTE for the role is, joining and leaving dates, reasons for leaving, and paid and unpaid absences.

Some information must be reported annually and some at the date of the event.

Year-end

The NHS Pension Scheme has a year-end of 31 March, and the required annual information should be submitted by 31 May via POL, or manually by completing the SD55 form.

Benefit statements

Scheme members are able to access an annual benefit statement either themselves via the Total Reward Statement portal (TRS) or via their employers who can access the Electronic Staff Records (ESR) system. Scheme members will find this useful to check that their pension records are correct and to understand their future pension benefits when planning for retirement.

Pensionable earnings

Not all salary is pensionable. Non-pensionable elements include bonuses, reimbursed expenses and overtime in excess of the WTE. All regular payments of salary and unsocial hours are pensionable.

Note that London weighting is pensionable.

Employers need to be aware that excessive pay awards can lead to final pay control charges (see part six).

Pension contributions are paid at different tiered rates which are linked to the level of pensionable earnings (see part three).

Some employees will also be paying added years contributions, additional pension contributions or early retirement buy-out payments. All the employee contributions are given tax relief as a deduction from total salary before tax is calculated.

Employer contributions

These are payable at a rate of 14.38% on pensionable pay and must be paid (together with the employee contributions) by the 19^th of the month following the month the salary is paid.

Form GP1 has to be filed via POL or manually to support the payment details. Failure to make payments on time will result in a statutory interest charge and additional administrative charges.

Practice manager role

All these tasks add to the practice manager’s administrative burden of employing and managing staff. You may choose to outsource some of these responsibilities through a payroll bureau. However, the day-to-day procedures will need to be implemented at practice level to ensure that the payroll team is correctly applying the NHS Pension Scheme requirements to individual staff salaries.

Resources

NHS Pensions: employers hub

Pensions Online

Catch up with parts one to seven here.