The Official Receiver found that a GP practice manager failed to pay more than £75,000 in pension contributions into the NHS pension fund, despite deducting money from staff wages, and now faces seven years of bankruptcy restrictions.

Sonia Simkins, 54, of Foxglove Way, Dudley, ran Hawes Lane Surgery in Rowley Regis as a sole trader and in July 2024, the practice closed after a bankruptcy order was made against her.  

Following the order, an investigation by the Official Receiver found Simkins had deducted pension contributions from staff wages but failed to pay the money into the NHS pension scheme. 

However, investigations by the Official Receiver have been unable to confirm exactly what happened to the money.

On 3 April 2025, Simkins agreed a Bankruptcy Restrictions Undertaking (BRU), preventing her from managing a limited company for the next seven years, taking out a loan of more than £500 without disclosing the restriction, or working in some senior health service roles.

Commenting on this, Insolvency Service senior official officer, David Chapman, said: “Sonia Simkins deducted pension contributions from her staff’s wages, but failed to pay more than £75,000 into the NHS pension fund - while the closure of Hawes Lane Surgery had an immediate impact on staff and patients in Rowley Regis.”

He added that following an Insolvency Service investigation by the Official Receiver, Simkins accepted her misconduct and explained that the BRU will prevent her from acting as a company director or starting a new company until April 2032.

Hawes Lane Surgery closed on 25 July 2024 with almost 4,000 registered patients receiving no notice of this.

The Official Receiver worked with the Black Country Integrated Care Board (BCICB) to ensure patients arriving for appointments that day were provided with appropriate medical care at nearby surgeries.
 
In addition to this, the BCICB ensured patients at the surgery had continuing access to a GP before being re-registered at a new practice.

The practice employed 10 members of staff at the time of closure, including a GP and workers in receptionist and administrative roles.

Simkins should have paid £76,868 into the NHS pension fund for her staff, but only £1,722 was contributed.

During this period, she deducted more than £25,000 from her employees’ salaries as pension contributions and failed to pay more than £50,000 of employer contributions.

---