Request

Please provide the number of pensions that you have marked as deferred who are old enough to be entitled to receive a pension but are not currently claiming it.

On the 27 February 2024 you clarified the following:

By pensions do you mean ‘Deferred Members of the NHS pension scheme who are over normal retirement age but yet to claim benefits they are eligible for’? Yes

By ‘old enough’ do you want to know people who are over the normal retirement age for each scheme? Or over the minimum pension age for claiming an award early? The normal retirement age for each scheme please

Do you want us to count each scheme individually? I.e. a member may have claimed some 1995 service and not yet claimed their 2008 or 2015 service (though maybe eligible for it)? Yes please

Do you want us to only look at deferred members (i.e. those who are not contributing to the scheme), or do you want us to include active member or pensioners who have some unclaimed deferred benefits? (i.e. an active member in 2015 scheme, who hasn’t claimed their eligible 1995 benefits). Deferred members please

Response

Total Deferred Members who have unclaimed benefits in the 1995 Scheme – 96,886

Total Deferred Members who have unclaimed benefits in the 2008 Scheme – 5,266

Total Deferred Members who have unclaimed benefits in the 2015 Scheme – 5,619

Caveats

Member age has been assessed against the Normal Retirement Age (NRA) for each scheme. This is 60 for the 1995 Scheme, 65 for the 2008 Scheme, and the member’s personal State Pension Age (SPA) for the 2015 Scheme.

Some members in the 1995 Scheme may have an NRA of 55 if they have eligible MHO or Special Class service. This is difficult to accurately assess, and generally shouldn’t apply as frequently to deferred members, so has not been applied.

Members may appear in all three provided volumes, as they may have unclaimed deferred benefits in multiple schemes.

Members who have claimed any part of their pension even in a different scheme, are not included, even if they have unclaimed deferred benefits and are over NRA for claiming them.

Members who are actively contributing to the NHS Pension Scheme are not included, even if they have unclaimed deferred benefits in a different scheme and are over NRA for claiming them.

Deferred membership is not a reflection of NHS employment; a member may have opted out of the NHS Pension Scheme with deferred benefits, but is still actively working in NHS employment.

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.

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