Almost everyone employed by the NHS shares the same pension scheme: nurses, hospital doctors and consultants, allied health professionals, admin and more, not just Agenda for Change staff. But it isn’t one simple pension. There are three: the 1995 and 2008 sections and the 2015 scheme. The rules changed twice, then a court case rearranged part of them again, which makes it hard to understand.
If you joined before 2015 and still work in the NHS, you almost certainly hold benefits in two: your original scheme and the 2015 one everyone builds up in now. Which schemes you’re in sets when you can retire and what your pension is worth. This page walks through each, and the McCloud choice some members face. It describes the scheme in England and Wales, run by NHSBSA; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own, run by the SPPA and HSC Pensions.
See it in your own numbers
We built a calculator for Agenda for Change (AfC) staff that understands pay, pensions and conditions, so their combined effect is clear. Enter your numbers and see how it all comes together.
Open the calculatorWhich scheme are you in?
The quickest way to place yourself is by when you joined the NHS pension scheme.
- Joined before 1 April 2008. You started in the 1995 section: a final-salary pension that pays out in full at 60, with an automatic tax-free lump sum built in. From April 2022 you’ve been building up in the 2015 scheme, and the years in between are settled by the McCloud rules below.
- Joined between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2015. You started in the 2008 section: also final salary, but paying out in full at 65 and with no automatic lump sum. Same move to the 2015 scheme from April 2022, and the same McCloud treatment for the years in between.
- Joined on or after 1 April 2015. You’re in the 2015 scheme only: a career-average pension that came out of the Hutton review of public-service pensions and pays out at your State Pension age, with one set of rules to follow.
If you’re not sure which describes you, there are three reliable places to look it up:
- Your Total Reward Statement (TRS) or Annual Benefit Statement, reached through ESR (if your employer uses it) or the member portal. It shows your scheme membership and your benefits built up so far.
- The NHSBSA member portal, “My NHS Pension”: your own record of membership, scheme and service.
- Your annual benefit statement from NHSBSA, which sets out your benefits each year.
If your record shows service starting before April 2015, you’ll see your legacy section there alongside your 2015 membership.
The three schemes at a glance
| Section | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Benefit type | Final salary | Final salary | Career average |
| Accrual rate | 1/80 per year | 1/60 per year | 1/54 per year |
| Pay it’s based on | Best of last 3 years | Best 3 of last 10 years | Each year’s pay, as earned |
| Yearly in-service uplift | None | None | CPI + 1.5% |
| Normal pension age | 60 | 65 | State Pension age |
| Take it early | Pension + lump sum cut | Pension cut | Pension cut |
| Take it late | No increase | Increased | Increased |
| Automatic lump sum | 3× pension | None | None |
| Extra lump sum | Commute | Commute | Commute |
| Adult survivor pension | 50% | 37.5% | 33.75% |
| Status today | Closed | Closed | Open |
Select a year to expand it: its background and a worked example. The rows compare what shapes each scheme’s value over its lifetime, what taking it early or late does, and the lump sums and survivor benefits each one pays.
Sources: NHS Employers: comparing the sections; NHSBSA 1995/2008 and 2015 members’ guides; and its NHS Pension Schemes: an overview.
How an NHS pension is built
An NHS pension has a lifecycle: it builds up while you work, you draw it when you retire, and it pays out to your family if you die. A few mechanics run through all three schemes. Here’s how they work, before the cards show what each scheme does with them.
While you’re working: how it builds up
There are two ways an NHS pension builds up. The 1995 and 2008 sections are final salary: your pension is your pay near the end of your career, times your years in the scheme and a fixed fraction. The 2015 scheme is career average (CARE): you bank a slice of each year’s pay as you earn it, and the slices add up. The detail is set out in the NHSBSA 1995/2008 and 2015 members’ guides.
When you retire: how you draw it
Each scheme has a normal pension age, the age it pays in full. Each scheme has its own, so if you hold benefits in more than one you have more than one, but you can still retire on a single day. Take a pension before its pension age and it’s reduced (an actuarial reduction, set by Government Actuary’s Department factors, because it’ll be paid for longer); take it later, as an active member, and some schemes add an enhancement. The earliest you can take reduced benefits is currently 55, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028; some longer-serving 1995 members have a protected minimum age of 50.
If you die: what’s left for others
While you’re an active member, the scheme pays a death-in-service lump sum of roughly twice your pay, and an ongoing survivor pension for life, a fraction of your pension, with children’s pensions on top. The lump sum is much the same across the schemes; where they differ is the survivor fraction, in the comparison table. Keep your expression of wish nomination current so the lump sum reaches the right person; the NHSBSA survivors guide has the qualifying detail.
McCloud: the 2015–2022 window
This applies only if you were in the scheme on or before 31 March 2012 and worked at some point between 2015 and 2022. When the 2015 scheme launched, staff closest to retirement were kept on their legacy section while everyone else was moved across, a split by age that the courts ruled unlawful in 2018. The McCloud remedy is the fix.
For your 2015–2022 service it gives you a one-time choice at retirement: keep it in your legacy section (1995 or 2008) or take the 2015 value, whichever suits your circumstances. You do nothing now. The choice comes to you before you retire.
How schemes fit together
If you joined before April 2015, your pension is built from more than one scheme. Each part of your service is worked out under the rules of the scheme it sits in:
- Before 2015: your legacy section (1995 or 2008), on that section’s terms.
- 2015 to 2022: your legacy section too, after the McCloud rollback.
- April 2022 onward: the 2015 scheme.
The parts don’t merge into one figure. Each can become payable at a different age (a 1995 part at 60, a 2015 part at your State Pension age), and each carries its own lump-sum rules. You don’t add these up yourself, though: when you retire, your NHSBSA retirement quote works out each part and combines them into a single total.