General GP Pensions

We aim to respond to all submissions/queries within 30 working days. However, please be advised that due to end of year pension administration, the GP Pensions team is currently working through a high volume of document submissions and queries and response times are currently longer than usual.

In the meantime, you may find that the answer to your query can be found in these frequently asked questions.

You can identify which GPs are paying into the NHS pension scheme at your practice by reviewing your contractual statements on PCSE Online. Any GPs making contributions to their NHS pension will show under the pension contribution section. 

You can also check the joiner tab on PCSE Online, which will provide you with a list of all GPs at your practice who are having pension contributions deducted. 

Please be aware that you will need to have the required roles to access these screens. For more information on roles for PCSE Online, take a look at our User Management guide. 

PCSE can only confirm which GPs are making contributions to their NHS pensions. If you believe a GP is part of the NHS pension scheme and not making contributions, please contact NHS Pensions. 

The scheme you have membership in should be shown on your Total Reward Statement/Annual Benefits Statement or in the My NHS Pension portal.
It will also show on any service statement or Annual Allowance statement provided by NHS Pensions.
If you do not have access to either of these, you can contact the pensions helpdesk on 0300 3301346 or nhsbsa.pensionsmember@nhsbsa.nhs.uk 

This is an SD membership number and will be on any documentation you have from NHS Pensions. If you do not have anything, you can email the Pensions Member team at nhsbsa.pensionsmember@nhsbsa.nhs.uk  

If you require technical support for My NHS Pension, use our 'Contact Us' form and select the service 'My NHS Pension Portal Support'. 
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/employee-section 
Alternatively, you can email us at nhsbsa.mynhspension@nhsbsa.nhs.uk

If you take authorised leave or a career break, you can choose to remain pensionable for up to 6 months.

If the authorised leave is pensionable, you must make arrangements with your employer to pay contributions continuously during the break.

If you do not stop paying pension contributions in the first 6 months, you can choose to pay contributions for a further 18 months. If you wish to continue contributing during the 18 month period, you’re responsible for the employee and employer pension contributions.

Non-GP partners are not given roles automatically as they aren’t on the performers list, however your practice user administrator for GP Payments and Pensions can give them the Non-GP partner role.

No, PCSE Online is a secure web based system that uses encrypted communications. Access to PCSE Online is controlled through Role Based Access Control and these roles are both assigned and managed by a User Administrator within the practice.

Currently Practice Managers are unable to view contribution statements but we are looking into this to make it possible.

Each GP can download a copy of their statement and provide it to the Practice Manager or their Accountant.

Yes, GPs will be able to see the last 7 years data back to 2014/15. The system will show 6 previous financial years plus the current financial year.

The GP can download either CSV or a PDF of their employee contribution statements on PCSE Online. They can also download a PDF of any forms they have filled in via the solution.

Please submit the certificate or pay evidence for the financial year these contribution relate to, to the PCSE pensions team. We will then review the detail, and make any adjustments to ensure your pension record if fully up to date.  

We have produced a new guide to help you understand why pension contributions might not reflect what you're expecting.

Topics covered include:

Information on how to resolve various queries
Answers to key questions about why there might be changes in contributions
How to complete a joiner/leaver form

Managing Pension Contributions guide.

If you are a General Practitioner (GP) that practices under a different surname, you may have issues accessing your statement due to the verification process used.

If you have issues accessing your statement due to practising under a different surname, please contact NHS Pensions directly by emailing nhsbsa.pensionsmember@nhsbsa.nhs.uk and include your membership or NI number

There are different ways to increase your pension:

• Additional Pension
• Bigger lump sum purchase
• Early Retirement Reduction Buy Out (ERRBO)
• Half Cost Added Years
• Money Purchase Additional Voluntary Contributions (MPAVC)
• Stakeholder Pensions
   

Visit the NHSBSA Increasing Your Pension webpage for more information on all of the options available.

If you need to submit any forms to us or have a query, you can visit the Contact Us page and complete a new GP pensions enquiry.

You need to notify PCSE using the online form available on the ‘Contact us’ page. Select ‘Pensions’ and complete your details. Then select the ‘Additional pension/ AVC/Top up’ option from the drop down list and upload your proof of identity, address and a marriage certificate and we will update your pension record.

When making a payment please enter the reference in the following format:

Practice code – year ending – GP’s full name

For example: P82004YEND2018- DR John Smith

PCSE’s customer support centre can provide NHS England’s bank details over the phone.

Please note that PCSE is unable to answer queries regarding private pension schemes. NHS England advises practitioners to contact the ICB or regional team that requested the deduction of private pension contributions from the practice payment.

Please download the forms directly from the NHS BSA website, complete it electronically, save it and upload it directly to the online form. As long as you can provide a nhs.net address as a contact email address there is no need to print it off, sign it and scan back in, which often makes the file size much larger.

If you don’t have an nhs.net email address, please upload the form without the signature, and upload a separate page with the signature(s) on. The form will allow you to upload up to five documents in one submission.

The enquiries form is accessible on the 'Contact us' page of the PCSE website. 

You will receive an automated email reply within 10-20 minutes.

The maximum file size per attachment is 3.2MB. 

The online form supports these various types of uploads, bmp, doc, docx, gif, jpg, pdf, png, rtf, tif, txt, xls, xlsx, ods, odt. However, the most frequently used file types which are recommended are pdf and excel files.

Yes, if you select an option where there is a requirement to submit a form/document you will be provided with the option to upload and attach up to eight documents as part of your submission.