Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Please provide

a) The number of individuals who opted out of the NHS Pension Scheme in each of the financial years of 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, and 2022/23

b) A breakdown of NHS Pension Scheme opt-outs by the reason stated for their leaving the scheme, for each financial year

c) A breakdown of NHS Pension Scheme opt-outs by salary bands, for each financial year

d) A breakdown of NHS Pension Scheme opt-outs by age group, for each financial year

You clarified your request as follows:

Please provide the breakdown in the following agebands: 0-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70+

Please only count members once if that is possible, to avoid counting the same members twice.

Instead of salary bands, please provide the breakdown by different bands of total pensionable pay. I don't mind which categories are used here, whichever are easiest/most appropriate.

Your clarified request was received on 6 July 2023 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

Reasons for opting out of NHS Pension scheme

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority.

Remaining information

A copy of the information is attached. Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

• Members have been counted once for each financial year (01/04 – 31/03) in which they opted out

• Age brackets are based on the Age at Opt Out

• This data only reflects those members who have contributed to the pension scheme and then opted out; if they opted out of the pension scheme at the beginning of their employment (i.e. opted out of auto-enrolment), we will have no data on them

• This cannot be used to reflect Opt-Out rate; members can opt in and out of the scheme in the same period, so without assessing those who have returned, and without factoring in ALL members in the scheme at the time, it is impossible to say if volume of opt outs are increasing or decreasing. (i.e. if 10 people out of 1000 opted out in 2019, and 50 people out of 10,000 opted out in 2022, the rate has actually decreased)

• The TPP bandings reflect the pensionable pay which the member has paid contributions on. It is not a reflection of salary or AfC NHS Bandings. For example a high earning practitioner may only recorded TPP of £1,000 for a few days locum work, where as a full time clerical administrator may have earned £19,000 over the entire year; they will be in the same TPP Bracket, but have very different salaries.

• The data provided in this FOI response counts all members who have opted out of the scheme including those working in clinical and non-clinical roles.

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.