Common NHS Pension Mistakes to Avoid

This is a round-up, not a replacement for the guides it links to — if one of these applies to you, follow the link for the real detail, deadlines and figures. It's independent guidance, not affiliated with NHS Pensions, the NHS Business Services Authority, NHS England or DHSC.

1. Not updating your nomination after a life event

A nomination tells NHS Pensions who should receive a lump sum death grant, and it doesn't update itself when your circumstances do. Marriage, divorce, a new child, or the death of someone previously named are all moments people forget to act on.

2. Assuming Additional Pension is closed when it isn't

It's a common assumption that buying extra pension stopped being possible at some point in the past. It hasn't — contributing members of the 2015 Scheme can still buy Additional Pension in £250 multiples, up to a published annual maximum that's reviewed periodically. What did close, on 31 March 2022, was buying added years or additional pension specifically within the older 1995 or 2008 Section rules.

3. Missing the Scheme Pays election deadline

If you're facing an Annual Allowance tax charge, Scheme Pays lets your pension scheme pay some or all of the charge on your behalf in exchange for a reduction to your future pension — but mandatory Scheme Pays has a strict election deadline, and missing it can mean losing the option to use it for that tax year.

4. Not checking Annual Allowance exposure before a big pay rise

It's the growth in your pension over a year — not your salary itself — that can trigger an Annual Allowance tax charge. A promotion, a run of extra sessions, or a jump in pensionable pay can push pension growth up sharply even for someone who wouldn't otherwise think of themselves as a high earner, and the resulting tax bill can arrive as a genuine surprise if it's never been checked in advance.

5. Assuming all bank or agency work is automatically pensionable

Shifts through your own trust's staff bank are usually pensionable. Work through an external agency, or genuinely self-employed locum work, usually isn't — and the difference can catch people out, especially those picking up extra bank shifts assuming they're all building pension in the same way as substantive hours.

6. Treating a forecast or estimate as a guaranteed figure

An Annual Benefit Statement projection or a requested written Estimate is indicative, based on assumptions about your future pay and retirement date — not a guarantee. Only a formal retirement quote, produced once you actually apply to retire, reflects your final confirmed pay and service. For a quick, unofficial figure to sit alongside those, our NHS pension forecast calculator projects your 2015 Scheme pension from your own pay.

7. Ignoring the McCloud remedy because it sounds like it doesn't apply

Anyone with NHS Pension service between 2015 and 2022 is potentially affected by the McCloud remedy, regardless of how close they are to retirement. Assuming it's "something for people retiring soon" rather than checking your own remediable service statement is a common and avoidable gap.

8. Losing track of deferred benefits after leaving the NHS

Moving to a private sector role, or leaving the NHS for any reason before retirement, doesn't forfeit pension you've already built up — but a deferred pension sitting untracked for years, with contact details NHS Pensions no longer has correctly, is a genuinely common way people lose touch with benefits that are rightfully theirs.

Opting out for a short-term cash boost is another costly mistake, and our free NHS Pension Opt-Out Calculator puts the real numbers in front of you first.

Why you can rely on this page

• ✓ Every specific claim here — deadlines, eligibility, figures — is covered in full, with sourcing, on the linked guide, rather than restated and risking drifting out of date here
• ✓ This page is deliberately a checklist and index, not a substitute for reading the relevant full guide before acting
• ✓ This guide is not affiliated with NHS Pensions, the NHS Business Services Authority, NHS England or DHSC

This guide is provided for general information only, is not affiliated with NHS Pensions, the NHS Business Services Authority, NHS England or the Department of Health and Social Care, and is not financial advice. For your own exact circumstances, use the linked full guides and, where relevant, contact NHS Pensions directly.