The government’s proposed flexibilities to the NHS Pension Scheme are a “sticking plaster” solution that will not solve the crisis over working hours that is engulfing the UK’s healthcare system.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has said that the government's plans — which propose allowing NHS staff and employers to reduce the amount they pay into their pension pots — are a much-needed, but only temporary solution to the crisis.

A BMA survey published in August found that thousands of GPs and hospital consultants have reduced their working hours, and thousands more are planning to cut back because of the introduction of a tapered annual allowance mechanism into the scheme in 2016.

The change has resulted in doctors whose adjusted income (net income plus annual pension growth) exceeds £150,000 facing large tax bills relating to their pension contributions as it reduces the amount of annual allowance by £1 for every £2 over £150,000.

The taper stops at a minimum annual allowance of £10,000 which is reached where there is adjusted income over £210,000.

In a response to the government’s consultation, the trade union maintains that
the effect of pension changes is having a catastrophic impact on patients and the NHS, as doctors are forced to stop doing overtime.

It says that flexibilities can only be supported as a temporary fix if the employer’s contribution is “fully recycled” back to the doctor.

This would mean that if an employer is only paying 20 per cent of their usual contribution into a doctor’s pension, then they should pay the remaining 80 per cent back to the doctor as part of their salary.

The BMA added that without compulsory recycling, any flexibilities represent a real-terms pay cut.

Finally, it has repeated its call for the scheme’s annual and tapered annual allowance to be scrapped altogether.

“These perverse rules have for too long meant that doctors are being forced to turn down vital extra shifts caring for patients in our under-pressure hospitals and GP surgeries because they would be literally paying to go to work,” said BMA pensions committee chair, Dr Paul Youngs.

“Doctors are trapped in a dilemma between wanting to care for patients and not wanting to end up financially worse off. While the proposals in this consultation offer short-term mitigations, they are merely a sticking plaster that fail to address the crux of the problem.

"Only by scrapping the damaging annual and tapered annual allowance will the government stem the flow of doctors refusing additional work or considering leaving the profession over the issue.”

“We urge the government to get a grip on this issue immediately.”

The Department of Health and Social Care has launched its proposals to solve the crisis in September.

As well as allowing NHS workers to choose how much income they want in retirement and to adjust their contributions accordingly, the consultation asks if senior staff should be able to adjust their pension growth towards the end of the tax year, as they will then know how much they have worked over the previous year.

It also proposes phasing the ‘pensionability’ of large pay-rises for high earners.

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