Request

The number of people who have retired and returned within the nhs during 2023. Please also confirm the total pension lump sums paid and the annual total cost of the pensions paid to retire and return staff.

Response

I am writing to advise you that I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority.

We can’t distinguish “Retire and Returns” from all other retirements from our records; if a member retires from the NHS, returns to work but does not rejoin the scheme, their record will not reflect current employment status. This means that we do not hold a record of all members claiming pension benefits who have returned to work.

Advice and assistance

We do hold information on members who have claimed a pension, and then gone on to contribute to the pension scheme further, but please note that this would not represent all NHS staff who have “retired” and continued to work for the NHS as explained above.