Request

Further to the Employment Tribunal Judgement on Goodwin, the NHS Pension Scheme regulations were amended by the DHSC to reflect the changes required for Widower's Pensions with effect from 1st July 2021.

I request to know : 1) The date that NHS Pensions actually commenced to make adjusted pensions and arrears of payments to Dependent Widowers. 2) The total number of Widowers' payments made by 1st April 2022. 3) The total number of Widowers' payments made by 1st April 2023. 4) The total number of Widowers' payments made by the 5th April 2023.

On 10 June 2024 you clarified:

In order to avoid ambiguity I should point out that question 1 refers to adjusted pensions already in payment i.e. those with arrears due for payment and not new pensions commencing after the regulations have been amended and NHS Pensions have been authorized to commence a new pension at the new rate. These do not require adjustment. Perhaps it might have been better if I had used the words ‘with arrears’ rather than ‘and arrears’.

Questions 2, 3, and 4 do indeed only apply to those Goodwin affected widowers who need retrospective amendment and payment of arrears of pension over a number of years.

Response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

Question 1

17 April 2023

Question 2

0

Question 3

0

Question 4

0

Please note – when referring to Widowers’ payments – this is purely in relation to “Goodwin” cases where a change of rate was potentially required.

Following the Employment Tribunal judgement on Goodwin being handed down in June 2020, the government confirmed that the difference in treatment of a male survivor or partner of a female scheme member would need to be equalised in public service pension schemes. The NHS Pension Scheme regulations were consulted on and amended by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to reflect the changes with effect from 1 July 2021. A detailed assessment of the scale of administration impact was undertaken in respect of the system and process changes required. Any new survivor benefits calculations have been done in accordance with the judgement. However, for those with benefits in payment at the time, the process of retrospectively recalculating those benefits has taken longer due to resource demands and workload. We are now actively making payment to those affected and paying interest in respect of any which are late.

Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01966