Pension contributions - Locum A & B

You can contact the Pensions helpdesk on 0300 330 1346 and the team will check your record is updated, if you have a Total Reward Statement and if you have been sent an invite to the My NHS Portal.

This is the rate at which an employee pays their pension, depending on which earning band they come under. You can find more information regarding tier rates on the following webpage https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/cost-being-scheme

If you perform OOHs for a trust on a self-employed basis, you are a Practitioner and can pension.
A GP performing OOHs for a trust on an employed (salaried) basis is an Officer in NHS Pension Scheme terms.

It depends how the extended hours is set up. If you do this as a locum, it's locum work.
Salaried work and OOH organisation are both Solo work.

Locum work is defined in NHS Pension Scheme Regulations as 'to deputise or temporarily assist'.

Therefore, a period of 6 months or more in the same practice would not be considered as deputising or temporarily assisting.
 
Where a GP elects to work for a Practice on a long term self-employed basis, but they are not locuming, they are treated as a salaried GP in NHS Pension Scheme terms. Their pensionable income is their surgery income plus any ad hoc income net of expenses. The Practice must list them on the estimate form prior to the start of the year and the GP must complete the self-assessment form at year-end.

If your pension record has missing service, you should contact your employer (PCSE) directly to ensure they have the information required to update NHS Pensions.
Should this be pre-2015, you can use the missing membership form from 
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/membership-nhs-pension-scheme

If you work consecutive days, for example, Monday and Tuesday, these can be recorded together.

If you work non-consecutive days, for example, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, all need to be listed separately.

If you invoice the organisation after every week worked, you are required to complete a Locum A form weekly.

If you invoice at the end of every month, you can do a monthly Locum A form, however all sessions must be listed, either as consecutive days (two or more days in sucession) or as individual days if non-consecutive. ry.

If your invoice comes from a limited company then you are not eligible to pension the work. Neither agencies or limited companies are eligible in the NHS Pension Scheme.

If your invoice comes from a limited company, you are not eligible to pension the work.

No. The officer post is salaried through the organisation's payroll. However you will need to do Locum A & B forms.

The practice should pay the locum direct

There is no minimum contribution required. The pension calculation is based on the amount of service you pay pension on. 

As a locum, you will need to annualise your pensionable pay to find out the income for the year and select the relevant tier rate %

Yes, that is correct. 

There are no exceptions.  

NHS Pensions Regulations state you cannot pension a period of freelance GP locum work that ended more than 10 weeks ago. Any forms received after 10 weeks cannot be pensionable so will be rejected.

As a freelance GP locum, you must pay both your employee and employer contributions to NHS England / Primary Care Support England (PCSE), or the Local Health Board (LHB), no later than the seventh day of the following month.

The regulations are clear in stating that:

•    a locum practitioner who wishes to join this scheme must make an application to the scheme manager in such form as the scheme manager requires 
•    the application must not relate to a period of engagement which ended more than 10 weeks before the date of application

Therefore, any locum forms received outside of the 10-week period will be rejected in accordance with the regulations.

Lantum is an organisation and a meeting place for practices and locum GPs. Any work through Lantum is pensionable.
 

The responsibility is always on the GP, but an accountant can submit forms on behalf of that GP. We recommend that you maintain copies of all forms for your records.

No, you do not include any income from the officer post as this is pensioned direct to NHS pensions via the payroll

If you are a locum only, appraiser work counts as locum work and a GP Solo form should be completed. Part one is provided completed to the GP.

GP completes Part 2 to confirm receipt of payment and returns GP Solo form to the employer (commissioning body) for processing. The employer (the commissioning body) submits the GP Solo form.

If you have a Type 2 role, the appraiser work will also become Type 2 work.

Information can be found in the GP guide on the NHS Pensions website 
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2022-04/GP%20Member%20Pension%20Guide-20201111-%28V3%29%20.pdf  

Members with 1995 membership who had retired were able to rejoin the 2015 scheme from 01/04/2023.

Only members who had maximum service in the 1995 scheme (45 years) had to wait until 01/10/2023.

To rejoin, please let your practice manager know of your intention to pension your locum work.

When a Locum GP submits their Locum A form, the practice user with Locum Approver role is sent a notification with the Locum A details, and they can use this email to approve or reject the Locum A.

This notification has Approve or Reject buttons in the body of the email to save the practice having to log in and approve. If the practice is viewing the notification via their desktop then they need to have their desktop email client set as the default app for email, otherwise the approve and reject buttons won’t work.

If they’re viewing their email through a web browser or mobile device then they need to log in to approve.

The issue for desktop/laptops can be resolved by following the process below:

• Close Outlook, then open Control Panel on your laptop/desktop - type Control Panel in the search box on the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen
• Choose Programs then Default Programs
• Click on Associate a file type or protocol with a program
• In the email section of Choose default apps, check if Outlook is set as the default app
• If it's not Outlook, just click the button and choose Outlook from the options listed
• Close Control Panel
• Open Outlook 
• Open the email again, and you should now be able to click approve or reject.

Locum A and B processes are only for Pensions admin and are not related to invoicing or reimbursement of locum cover costs.

Locums have the option to continue using ‘offline’ versions of Locum A forms, however using PCSE Online for both Locum A & B forms means they’ll have a clear audit trail and know how much they need to pay each month. We will be encouraging uptake; however it would also be helpful to raise awareness.

You need to submit a separate Locum A and B form for September 2022 and October 2022 due to the changes to contribution tier rates that apply from 1 October.

PCSE will inform NHS England that the payment needs to be refunded to you. The NHS England Finance Team is responsible for processing any such refunds.

If you try to submit forms that do not comply with the 10 week rule on PCSE Online, you will see an error message explaining the income cannot be pensioned. 

If you submit forms via the contact us form that do not comply with the 10 week rule, you will receive an email explaining the income cannot be pensioned.

To make a BACS payment, you will need:

1.The NHS England bank account number and sort code

2.Your BACS reference

Please contact the PCSE Customer Support Centre to access the bank details. We cannot provide this publicly or via email for security purposes.

Your BACS reference is made up of:

​Your GP pension scheme number (8 characters)
Info on the form this relates to eg LOC for locum payments: 3 characters
Date: consisting of month (3 characters) and year (4 characters)
For example, if your GP Pension scheme number (or SD number) is 12345678, the payment is for locum pension contributions and it is being made in May 2020, your BACS reference would be 12345678LOCMAY2020.This ensures that your payment is matched accurately to your pension.

Then, please use the enquiries form to submit your self-assessment or annual certificate and enter the same reference number when prompted.

Please submit your payment by BACS and your paperwork via the enquiries form. You will need to enter your email address when prompted (NHS.net email accounts are preferred).

Please use Locum Form B to generate your unique identifying reference (UIR). This should be input on the Locum Form A and as the payment reference when you make BACs payments.

Your BACS reference (UIR) is made up of:

• Your GP pension scheme number (8 characters)
• Info on the form this relates to eg LOC for locum payments: 3 characters
• Date: consisting of month (3 characters) and year (4 characters)

For example, if your GP Pension scheme number (or SD number) is 12345678, the payment is for locum pension contributions and it is being made for work carried out in March 2022, your BACS reference would be 12345678LOCMAR2022.This ensures that your payment is matched accurately to your pension.

Important information: Your unique identifying reference (UIR) number on Form A should match the UIR on Locum Form B and the payment reference on your BACS submission.

If you need NHS England bank details please call PCSE on 0333 014 2884 and we can provide them over the phone.

If your locum forms do not include your unique identifying reference, then the work can not be credited to your pension record.

The Locum A & B forms and guidance notes are available to download from the NHS Pensions website.

NHS Pensions Regulations state you cannot pension a period of freelance GP locum work that ended more than 10 weeks ago. Any forms received after 10 weeks cannot be pensionable so will be rejected.

As a freelance GP locum, you must pay both your employee and employer contributions to NHS England / Primary Care Support England (PCSE), or the Local Health Board (LHB), no later than the seventh day of the following month.

That is, if they worked on a Monday, Tuesday and a Wednesday at a specific practice, they have up to 10 weeks from the Wednesday to claim NHS Pension Scheme membership for all three days.

In April 2017, The Department of Health introduced an administration levy on employers to cover the cost of administering the NHS Pension Scheme.

The levy is a flat rate 0.08 per cent of pensionable pay for all employers and will be collected in addition to the standard employer contribution rate of 14.3 per cent. This means employers will now pay a total of 14.38 per cent of pensionable pay. 

Yes. If the surgery wants to employ (or engage) you on a more permanent basis rather than in a locum role, and you are agreeable to this you would, going forward, be regarded as a Type 2 Medical Practitioner in NHS Pension Scheme terms. As you would no longer complete locum forms A and B, the surgery would have to inform PCSE of your estimated surgery income and collect scheme employee contributions directly from you. They would then forward your employee contributions and their employer contributions directly to PCSE. At year end you would have to complete the Type 2 Medical Practitioner self-assessment form.  

You are only regarded as a freelance GP locum in NHS Pension Scheme terms if you are a GP that works for a practice under a contract for services arrangement and are deputising for an absent GP, or if you are engaged on a temporary basis. If you wish to be regarded as a type 2 medical Practitioner you must be either employed or engaged under a more permanent basis by the practice.

A GP in England who is solely a freelance GP locum in a NHSPS year is only required to complete locum forms A & B if they elect to pension their locum income. If they also do some appraisal work for NHSE they also declare this on locum forms A & B; they are not required to complete the SOLO or the type 2 self-assessment form.

Where a freelance GP locum in England also is also a salaried GP then they must also complete the type 2 self-assessment form.

Where a freelance GP locum in England also also completes out of hours work GP, then they must also complete the type 2 self-assessment form; the out of hours provider must also complete the SOLO form.

The forms can be downloaded from the NHS Pensions website.

Forms should be submitted to PCSE by visiting the Contact Us page and completing a new GP Pensions enquiry.

The GP Locum A and B forms can be downloaded from the NHS Pensions website.

Freelance GP locums who want to claim NHS Pension Scheme (NHSPS) membership for GMS, PMS, APMS or appraisal NHS work should complete part 1 of the GP Locum A form and send with the invoice to the GP practice to sign and pay. Locums should also complete Locum B form and submit both completed A&B forms to PCSE by visiting the Contact Us page and completing a new GP Pensions enquiry.

Further guidance can be found on the GP Locum A & B forms.