Getting your pension figures

What NHSBSA sends, when it arrives, and what it doesn't tell you.

You can't work out your annual allowance position, or plan your retirement, without your actual figures. Several documents exist, they arrive at different times, and none gives you the whole picture on its own.

Total Reward Statement

An annual summary of your NHS employment benefits including your pension, available through the Total Reward Statement portal or via ESR.

It shows the pension you've built so far and a projection to your normal pension age. Useful for a general sense of where you stand, and useful as the input to an estimate where you don't have a pension savings statement.

What it isn't is an annual allowance document. It won't tell you your pension input amount.

Pension savings statement

This is the annual allowance document, produced by NHSBSA.

It shows your pension input amount for the tax year, the growth in the value of your benefits, for each scheme you have benefits in, along with figures for the previous three years so carry forward can be worked out.

You'll be sent one automatically if your pension input amount in a scheme exceeded the standard annual allowance that year. The deadline for issuing them is set in legislation and falls in the autumn following the tax year.

If your growth was below the standard allowance you won't get one automatically, but you can request one. If you're tapered you should, because your actual allowance may be far below the standard figure. This is the most common reason a tapered member has no idea they face a charge.

What the statement doesn't tell you

Your tapered allowance. The statement is produced against the standard allowance because NHSBSA doesn't know your total income. Private practice earnings, other employment, investment income and salary sacrifice arrangements are all invisible to them and all relevant to the taper.

Your real carry forward, which follows from the same limitation. If your allowance was tapered in earlier years, the unused allowance implied by the statement is overstated.

Anything about other pensions. A personal pension, a previous employer's scheme, or benefits in another public service scheme all count towards the same allowance and none of them are in this statement.

That's why the NHS Annual Allowance Check asks for your income as well as your pension figures, and derives your allowance for each year rather than taking the statement at face value.

Remediable Service Statement

Issued as part of the McCloud remedy, setting out your position under both options for your remedy period service. See The McCloud remedy.

Keep it. You'll need it when the choice arises.

What to gather

If you're checking your annual allowance position, you want:

Pension savings statements for the current year and the previous three
Your total taxable income for each of those years, from all sources, including private practice, other employment, rental and investment income
Any salary sacrifice arrangements, and what they cost you in pensionable pay
Details of any other pension contributions you've made
Any scheme pays elections already made

A real afternoon's work the first time, and much easier in later years once you have a file.

If your record is wrong

Errors happen, particularly around part-time service, breaks and transfers in from other schemes. If something looks wrong, query it with NHSBSA through your employer's pensions officer.

Correcting a record is far easier close to the time than decades later, and your employer's payroll data is what feeds the record in the first place.

The practical advice

Request a pension savings statement even if you don't get one automatically, if there's any chance you're tapered. It costs nothing and it's the difference between knowing and guessing.

Keep them. A file going back several years is worth having, and the McCloud remedy has made historic records more relevant rather than less.

Check after any significant pay event. A promotion, an award or a move to full-time are the moments a charge becomes likely, and finding out in year is better than finding out the following autumn.

This article is for general education only and isn't personal advice. The NHS Business Services Authority is the authoritative source for your own figures.