This section describes the benefits that you can expect to receive from the Scheme when you retire. Click on the factsheets at the bottom of this page to find out more about the different types of retirement.

HSC Staff, Practice and Approved Employer Staff earn pensions based on their pensionable pay at or near retirement, this is known as a ‘final salary’ pension.

Practitioners earn pensions based on their earnings throughout their career. These are revalued to maintain a current value and are known as Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) pensions.

Mixed employment – pension flexibilities

Practitioners who have also worked as NHS/HSC Staff or as a GP registrar may also have pension earned on the final salary method as well as on the CARE method.
Members who have this type of mixed employment will have additional calculations applied to their pension records to ensure that the most favourable benefits allowed by the flexibility rules are obtained for them.

Pension and lump sum

In both sections of the Scheme you will receive an annual pension. In the 1995 section you will also have a retirement lump sum. This will normally be three times your annual pension. Members of both Sections are able to give up some of their annual pension in exchange for an optional lump sum amount. This is called pension commutation and more information can be found in the Pension Commutation factsheet.

Providing for your dependants

If you are in good health you can choose to allocate (give up) part of your own pension to provide a bigger pension for any dependant on your death. This can be to a spouse, civil partner, qualifying partner, or child. The nomination must be made before you retire and you cannot reverse this decision once made. More Information can be found in the Allocation section using the link below.

Members working part time

For calculating benefits, membership means the actual membership you have accrued in the Scheme. So someone who has worked part time, say 50% of standard full time hours, for 20 years will have 10 years membership counting towards their benefit calculations. However, the other main factor in calculation benefits – final years pensionable pay, or reckonable pay – is based on the whole time equivalent salary for that job. So in the example the part time worker may have earned £10,000 a year but for the purpose of calculating benefits the full time rate of £20,000 is used.

Factsheets

2008 Section Only

Ill Health Retirement Benefits

This section gives more information about how to apply for Ill Health Retirement and the benefits that may be payable.