Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2016-06-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the extension of the mental health officer pension age to 65 on the health and income of pension scheme members with Mental Health Officer status.
Alistair Burt
Mental Health Officer status is a reserved right for members who joined the NHS Pension Scheme before 6 March 1995 and have continued working in a role that qualifies for this status. The historic rationale for Mental Health Officer status related to working in long stay mental hospitals that no longer exist. It was clearly inappropriate and unnecessary to retain different pension arrangements for staff working in mental health to other National Health Service staff. This was recognised in 1995 when it was removed for new entrants.
When the normal pension age (NPA) for new members of the scheme changed to 65 in 2008, the only Mental Health Officers with an NPA of 65 are those who, at the time, chose to transfer to the 2008 section of the scheme. Those who did not transfer retained their Mental Health Officer status. As part of the Hutton reforms to public service pensions, scheme members who on 1 April 2012 were not within 10 years of their NPA moved to the 2015 scheme for future service with an NPA the same as their state pension age. Most Mental Health Officers were within 10 years of their NPA of 55 and so were unaffected. A minority of Mental Health Officers did transfer to the 2015 scheme but all their benefits earned up to that point are fully protected and payable in accordance with Mental Health Officer status rules, so without reduction at 55 and including a calculation to reflect the doubling of the value of some service for accrual purposes.
The Working Longer Group, a partnership group of nationally recognised NHS trade unions, NHS employers and health department representatives, was established by the Government to review the implications of the NHS workforce working to a later, raised retirement age. The Group is taking forward its recommendations, accepted by Ministers, to support staff working longer in the NHS.
