Proposed changes to the regulations for the NHS pension schemes

The Department of Health is consulting on a draft statutory instrument, ‘The National Health Service Pension Scheme, Injury Benefits and Additional Voluntary Contributions (Amendment) Regulations 2016’.

This proposes amendments to the regulations that provide the rules for the NHS Pension Schemes in England and Wales, the supplementary Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) arrangements and the Injury Benefits scheme.

The department proposes to amend the scheme regulations for the following main purposes:

• to enable GPs to have pension earnings from sub-contracts where the holder of the main contract is also an NHS employer
• to add Universal Credit to the list of relevant benefits in the NHS Injury Benefit Scheme and clarify how claimants moving onto Employment and Support Allowance should be assessed
• to permit the money purchase AVC arrangements to pay lifetime allowance excess lump sums
• to make consequential changes to scheme rules to accommodate the introduction of shared parental leave, the abolition of contracting-out and the Pension Schemes Act 2015
• to make technical corrections and refinements to improve the operation of scheme regulations