Estimated pension benefits and Annual Benefit Statements

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Annual Benefit Statements
A guide to understanding your Annual Benefit Statement
Estimates and calculators

Annual Benefit Statements

2015 Remedy

On 1 April 2022 the legacy NHS Schemes were closed to any future pension build-up and members were moved into the reformed 2015 pension scheme.

If you are Eligible you will have the chance to choose between your legacy scheme (final salary) or reformed (CARE) scheme benefits when you retire.  Find out more about the 2015 Remedy from our Remedy Hub

Find out more about the 2015 Remedy from our Remedy Hub

Annual Benefit Statement for members who are not eligible for 2015 Remedy

If you are not eligible for 2015 Remedy, your Annual Benefit Statement will be available by the end of August each year.

Annual Benefit Statement for members who are eligible for 2015 Remedy

If you are eligible, you will have the chance to choose between legacy or reformed scheme benefits for the remedy period when you retire.

If you are working and contributing to a pension, we expect to issue the majority of eligible members with a new look Annual Benefit Statements (ABS) by the end of April 2025. Your ABS has been combined with a Remediable Service Statement (ABS-RSS) which will provide you with an estimate of your benefits in both the legacy (final salary) and reformed (CARE) schemes. 

If you have deferred your pension, you will get an ABS-RSS by the end of August 2025.

A Remedy calculator is available to use if you'd like to compare your legacy and reform

NHS Remedy Calculator

Accessing your Annual Benefit Statement

This year your statement will be issued by email or post. We hope to have provided all eligible members with their ABS-RSS by the end of April 2025.

A guide to understanding your Annual Benefit Statement (ABS)

Your Annual Benefit Statement estimates your pension benefits accrued up to the end of the most recent financial year based on your pensionable service and / or salary or pensionable pay details as confirmed by your employer.

If you're in active employment, you can register for our online service where you can access your Annual Benefit Statement.

Please note to be eligible for a 2024 ABS, members must be active in the scheme at 31 March 2024 and are still active at the date of calculation.

My ABS isn’t showing all of my service

If you are a member of both the final salary scheme and the 2015 CARE scheme your ABS will only show your service in the final salary scheme. This is because service is used in the calculation of final salary benefits but is not used in the calculation of CARE benefits.

If you work part time your pensionable service will be less than the calendar length service. e.g. if you work two and a half days per week over a five day week you will accrue 182 or 183 days of reckonable service over the 365 days qualifying service that year.

If you have had a break in service of more than 5 years the earlier service will be preserved.

I have worked since 2013, why does my ABS not show 10 years of service?

As a result of pension reforms in April 2015 you may now have pension benefits in both a final salary scheme and the 2015 CARE scheme. The CARE scheme was introduced on 1 April 2015, if you were moved to CARE on this date your final salary service will only be counted up to this date.

My Service hasn’t increased from last year

The final salary scheme was closed due to 2015 pension reforms and subsequent Remedy, so service in the final salary scheme will no longer increase. Everyone was moved to the CARE scheme on the 1 April 2022.

My pension benefits are lower than in previous years (Final Salary)

If your employer has reported to us a lower pensionable pay than the previous year it will appear that your benefits have decreased. This is because the pensionable pay is used in the calculation of final salary benefits. If you think that your pensionable pay is too low please contact your employers payroll to check that it is correct. We use the current years pay to calculate your Final Salary ABS estimate but at the point you retire we use the best pay in the last three years to calculate your final pension.

The CARE section of my 2024 ABS doesn’t list my total pensionable earnings

If you started a new contract mid-year our system will only recognise the pay on your active employment, for example:

1 April 2023 to 31 July 2024 employment ends and pay for this period is £10,000.
1 August 2023 to 31 March 2024 the pay for this active employment is £25,000. The total CARE earnings for the financial year are £35,000. However your ABS may only show the CARE earnings as £25,000. Your CARE pension will be calculated using the full £35,000.

I have an early retirement reduction (ERRBO) contract – this doesn’t show on my ABS

Our systems are unable to factor in ERRBO contracts to ABS. However your ERRBO contract is held on your record and will be included in any future retirement calculation.

Date of Joining is different from when I started working?

Your date of joining the scheme will always be the date you commenced your first pensionable employment in Scotland. If you have previously worked in another area of the UK and have transferred in service, your date of joining the scheme will still show the date you joined the Scottish scheme. Transferred in service will be included in benefit calculations and statements.

Is my Added Years or Additional Pension shown on my benefit statement?

If you have a contract to purchase additional pension benefits such as Added Years or Additional Pension by instalment, the full amount of the benefits will not show on your benefit statement until the full contract has been completed. Until then you will see a proportionate credit based on how much has been paid to the date of the statement.

Estimates and Calculators

As well as annual benefit statements we have a range of calculators that can be used by members still in active employment. These can be used to estimate to future dates and scenarios of your choice.

To use the calculators, check your most recent Annual Benefit Statement (ABS) on our online member portal first, then you can input that information into the calculators below.

Accessing the calculator

The calculator should automatically download to your computer or mobile device. Depending on your computer settings, it may also open in your web browser.

If you use the Microsoft Edge browser, you may see an error message that says: ‘Couldn’t Load This Workbook.’

If you see the error message and the calculator hasn't downloaded, you can manually download the calculator by clicking the ‘download file’ button. This will appear above the error message.

Download the NHS Pension Calculator

A Remedy calculator is available to use if you'd like to compare your legacy and reformed scheme benefits. This is the only service available at the present time to Remedy affected members who wish to obtain an estimate.