Request

Please can you provide the number of individuals who opted out of the NHS Pension Scheme in the most recent financial year, 2023/24. I know a similar request has been made for the financial years between 2018/19 and 2022/23, but not for 2023/24, so I would like that information too please.

Please can you provide this information in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. Please provide the requested documents by email to the address this request has been made from.

Can you please provide this information broken down by the following age bands: 0-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-69, 70 or over.

And can you also please break down the information by different bands of total pensionable pay, in whichever pay bands you think are most appropriate or are easiest to provide.

Date Range: 1/4/2023 – 31/3/2024

Response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested, and a copy of the information is attached.

Caveats

If a member had multiple opt outs in the 2023/24 year they have only been counted once.

Age brackets are based on age at opt out.

We do not hold information on members who have opted out at the beginning of their employment (opted out of auto-enrolment), as no pensions record will have been created for them.

The volume of opt outs alone cannot be used to calculate opt out rate, as the total volume of members eligible to opt out would need to be factored in.

Members can opt in and out of the scheme in the same period.A member may have opted out each year butmay have since returned (and either remain active, become deferred or claimed their pension).

We do not hold the reason for opt out.

The total pensionable pay (TPP) bandings reflect the pensionable pay which the member has paid contributions on.

Definitions:

TPP – total pensionable pay

The pay that contributions have been based on – this is not uprated to whole time equivalent and does not reflect a member’s annual salary or reckonable pay.

Opt out

An active member who chooses to stop contributing to the NHS Pension Scheme but continue in NHS employment.opts out of paying contributions.

Changes to opt-out data reporting

Please note the way opt-out data is reported is changing. The data included in this FOI response is based on our current process, and collated from our internal system, Compendia. From 18 November 2024, the data will be collated using opt-out volumes recorded at an Electronic Staff Record (ESR) employee level.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data. Reusing the data and copyright

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 2022” 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.