Change Your Address or Bank Details with NHS Pensions

This guide is for people who already draw an NHS pension and have moved house, changed bank, or are about to. It gives the routes NHSBSA publishes, what you need to have ready, and the rules about which bank accounts it will pay into. It does not invent any phone number: the numbers below are the ones on our how to contact NHS Pensions page, which are checked against NHSBSA.

Which route to use

NHSBSA's knowledge base and pensioner hub give three routes, and the right one depends on whether you can use the online portal.

NHSBSA says that if you are an active pensioner who has claimed all or part of your pension, returned to work and continue to contribute to the scheme, you cannot do the actions a pensioner member can on My NHS Pension, so use the form or the phone. If you have not been invited to the portal, its 2026 newsletter says to email nhsbsa.mynhspension@nhsbsa.nhs.uk with your membership number and postcode for your registration details.

Change your address

NHSBSA's pensioner hub says to notify it quickly so it can stay in touch about your pension, and that if you move without telling it payments may be suspended until it can locate you. Its useful information page adds that if it cannot contact you it may check your address through a third party using your credit history, which leaves a "soft trace" that does not affect your credit rating, and that failure to maintain contact may lead to a suspension of your pension benefits.

Have these ready:

• ✓ Your membership number, the eight digit number at the top of NHS Pensions letters, or your National Insurance number if you do not know it
• ✓ Your date of birth
• ✓ The full address and postcode of your old and new homes, and the date you moved
• ✓ For the form: your signature and the date. It is a declaration that the details are correct

The right route depends on the type of member. NHSBSA's knowledge base separates them, and as a pensioner you use My NHS Pension, or the change form if you cannot. Active members update through Electronic Staff Record or their employer, and deferred members use My NHS Pension, form COA1 or contact NHS Pensions. Dental practitioners update on Compass and then email dentalpensions@nhsbsa.nhs.uk.

Change your bank details

NHSBSA's knowledge base sets out the rules. If your new bank or building society is in the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or Gibraltar, you complete the change of address and bank details form, or update the UK account on My NHS Pension. You need to give your old and new account details: sort code, account number, account name and, for a building society, the roll number.

• ✓ The account must be in your name. NHSBSA says your NHS Pension can only be paid into an account you are named on, and the Survivors guide says either your own account or a joint account
• ✓ Third-party accounts are possible only if NHS Pensions receives a valid power of attorney or Court of Protection order
• ✓ The bank must hold a UK banking licence, or be a building society or credit union
• ✓ No pre-paid cards or money transfer services. NHSBSA names Wise, Currencies Direct, Suits Me and Pockit as examples it cannot pay
• ✓ The account must accept BACS electronic payments. The Retirement Guide says that if the account cannot, your payment will be rejected and this may delay your pension
• ✓ If there is not enough space on the form, NHSBSA says to include a covering letter with your completed form

Moving abroad, or an overseas account

• Most pensioners abroad can have the pension paid into a local bank account, NHSBSA says, in that country's currency. Accounts in the UK or its Crown Dependencies are paid in pounds sterling.
• The overseas bank mandate form for your country is needed to set up or change an overseas account. Send a replacement mandate form immediately if the account changes. The forms are listed on the Applying for your pension page, and the 2026 newsletter points to the pensioner hub for a factsheet and the forms.
• No payments in pounds to an overseas account. NHSBSA says that to convert to the local currency, a small processing fee is collected from each net payment.
• A country without a mandate: NHSBSA says to contact its helpdesk to check whether it can arrange payment to that country.
• Tell HMRC too. gov.uk says that if you move abroad you need to tell HMRC, and that you may be taxed on your pension by the country where you live and by the UK.

Change of name

NHSBSA's pensioner hub lists the document needed for each reason. Originals are preferred, and certified copies must be stamped by a solicitor. For any other reason contact NHS Pensions for advice.

Letting someone act for you

If you want NHS Pensions to speak to a family member or friend, NHSBSA says you need to send a letter of authority by post, not by email or phone. The letter must name the person or people NHS Pensions may communicate with, be signed and dated by you and by each nominee, and include your membership number, date of birth and current address. NHSBSA also publishes a quick reference guide on help from someone you trust. If the change of bank account is for a third party's account, it needs a valid power of attorney or Court of Protection order.

Other changes to report

The Retirement Guide lists what NHS Pensions wants to hear about, and warns that failing to tell it of any of these may lead to suspension of your payments or cause an overpayment that you will have to repay.

• ✓ A change of address
• ✓ A change to your bank or building society account details
• ✓ If you marry, remarry, form a civil partnership or wish to nominate a qualifying partner for an adult dependant's pension. See our unmarried partner survivor pension guide
• ✓ If you become re-employed in the NHS or with a body that has access to the scheme, or your job changes. See the retire and return checker
• ✓ If a child for whom you receive a children's pension goes to live on their own
• ✓ If you qualify for Permanent Injury Benefit
• ✓ If you are an adult dependant of a deceased member who remarries, enters a civil partnership or cohabits, where the member's membership ended before 1 April 2008

If a change has gone wrong

• A payment went to the old account: contact NHS Pensions on the pensioner line straight away. NHSBSA says it tries to recover payments sent to closed accounts, and delays can occur.
• Payments have stopped: NHSBSA says payments may be suspended if it cannot contact you or if details are out of date. Contact NHS Pensions, and have your membership number ready.
• You are told you were overpaid or underpaid: see overpayment and underpayment letters explained.
• Your P60 or tax code is wrong: that is a tax matter, covered in our P60 guide.

Contact details are on our contact page. It says the pensioner line is 0345 121 2522 and the postal address is NHS Pensions, PO Box 683, Unit 5, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE5 9EE. NHS Pensions says its social media is for general help only: do not post your membership number, National Insurance number or bank details there.