Report by the Chairman of the Superannuation Committee
Dr Simon Fradd
Thursday 4 July
Conference will know that the year has been dominated by the GP and Consultant contract negotiations and that has been true in the pensions field as well. At a time when many companies are abandoning their final salary pension schemes, our consultant negotiators effectively achieved a 24% increase in pension entitlement.
That is the increase in salary at the maximum of the consultant scale under the new consultant contract and therefore for the vast majority of the consultants that will be the resulting increase in pension. Surely there can be no other trade union in the country which has achieved such an outcome in a final salary pension scheme in recent years. Negotiations are continuing on other pension aspects of the new consultant contract.
The GP contract pension negotiations have been intense and are continuing – indeed a negotiating meeting was held in this conference centre yesterday afternoon.
There has been progress. Under the new contract, all NHS income will be superannuable for the first time. We have also secured improvements in the treatment of pre-GP service and concurrent officer service and for doctors moving between employed and self employed status.
However, we are still negotiating on a number of crucial issues:
· For the GP pension accrual rate to be increased so as to ensure that the value of the GP pension is in line with our consultant colleagues.
· For the dynamising factor – which is the factor which uprates GP pensionable income in line with pay increases – to be boosted by 11%, by including a number of items wrongly excluded in the past.
· For a pension enhancement to apply after age 60, so as to provide a realistic incentive for GPs to extend their service.
We have told Ministers that the new GP contract will not be acceptable to the profession unless there is a satisfactory outcome on these fundamentally important points.
We are also addressing in the negotiations the question of the pensions earnings cap which will inevitably impact on an increasing number of doctors in future.
Once the contract negotiations are out of the way, we will press the Government to finalise the NHS pension scheme modernisation review.
Although the contract negotiations have dominated, we have dealt with a wide range of other issues during the year including:
· We were delighted to gain entry to the NHS pension scheme for GP locums backdated to April 2001, but horrified to find that the new regulations excluded locums who also work as principals or assistants, and we are working hard to rectify that totally unacceptable situation.
· We have further explored the legal position in respect of widowers’ pensions and have recently provided material for an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on the subject.
· We have worked with the Junior Doctors Committee on the pension problems being experienced by flexible trainees and with the Armed Forces Committee in pursuing improvements to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme for services doctors.
· We have pursued a range of issues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, including issues to do with clinical academics, LHG income and locums.
The Superannuation Department in conjunction with BMA Services, has this year initiated a new seminar programme for doctors in mid career. This will run parallel with our existing very successful pre-retirement seminar programme for doctors aged over 55.
In addition to this very considerable activity, the Superannuation Department has handled its usual extremely heavy volume of enquiries from members concerning their individual pensions, as well as supporting the Occupational Health Committee in its important work.