www.independent-practitioner-today.co.uk
March 2021 Issue 130
INDEPENDENT PRACTITIONER TODAY
The business journal for doctors in private practice
In this issue
Good logo design
Aspects to consider before creating a new logo for your practice P18
Cheap and cheesy social media can ruin your brand
Nikki Milovanovic warns that ‘being on social’ is not the same as being great on it P22
£12.50
In this issue Why are we so bad at calling for help?
The first instalment of our serialisation of ‘Beneath The White Coat’ by Dr Clare Gerada n See page 48
A non-binary approach is required
Does the Equality Act protect non-binary individuals working in your practice? P32
Good news on pensions By Robin Stride Doctors who were forced to move to the 2015 NHS Pension Scheme have been told they will not need to decide which set of compensation benefits they wish to receive until their time of retirement. Previously, they were told that they had to choose now. Results of the so-called ‘McCloud’ consultation released last month, hailed as ‘good news’ by leading specialist medical accountants, concluded that doctors have the right to make a ‘deferred choice’ about which remedy benefits to take. It can be the pension benefits from their previous 1995/2008 pension scheme or those from the 2015 scheme. The consultation also explored the option to make an ‘immediate choice’ now of which pension benefits to take for the remedy period, to run from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022. When the 2015 scheme was introduced, older members – those within ten years of retiring – were allowed to continue with their final salary schemes in the 1995 or 2008 sections. But the Court of Appeal in 2018 found this discriminated against younger members in a case brought by judges (named McCloud) and firefighters. The Government has now agreed In association with
to redress this discrimination across all public sector pension schemes at an expected cost of around £17bn. Specialist financial planners Cavendish Medical called it ‘an extremely complicated situation’, but said the consultation outcome was generally accepted to be the better of the two options presented. Technical director Patrick Convey said: ‘In essence, it means that doctors will be able to choose the most lucrative scheme benefits by way of compensation when they come to retire. ‘This, of course, does not make the calculations of the already fiendishly complex NHS pension any easier. The Government even recognised in the consultation that this outcome will still place an ‘administrative burden’ on the doctors – many of whom have already had the most challenging of years. ‘They could be concerned that the last five years of tax calculations
and annual allowance payments will need to be recalculated. It is also likely that the pension figure they have been working towards is now wrong’. He told Independent Practitioner Today: ‘In the next few months, we will be working through the finer details of this compensation scheme to ensure the doctors in our care have the best outcome.’ Less welcome is the Govern ment’s conclusion to a related consultation that no further flexibility will be introduced to NHS pension schemes. Mr Convey said: ‘It is disappointing that the Government received overwhelming feedback from medical and financial professionals in the consultation that confirmed the annual allowance was causing doctors to reduce shifts or retire early, and yet still ruled against introducing some flexibility. ‘For example, this could have
been an opportunity to allow doctors to change the rate at which their pensions grow in order to mitigate against annual allowance breaches. ‘Instead, the Government stated that the tapered annual allowance rule changes introduced last year were enough to help the workforce crisis. We are not sure that is the case. ‘The rules surrounding pensions and tax charges are still too complicated and excessively punitive for t hose working hard to help patients.’ n Cavendish Medical is staging a free pensions and tax webinar to help doctors understand the McCloud remedy. See page 4
Only half the pension cure, says BMA The BMA, with the backing of thousands of its members, fiercely opposed the pensions changes forcing doctors to move to a new pension scheme in 2015. Its pensions committee chairman Dr Vishal Sharma said the Government had listened and it was ‘common sense’ for it to opt
for deferred choice, with this crucial decision being made at the time of retirement. Doctors should not be forced to make an immediate decision on which scheme to be a part of, especially in the middle of a pandemic when they were facing intense career pressure.
He added: ‘It is only at the point of retirement that doctors will have in their possession all of the relevant information from which they can make an informed decision as to what is the best decision for them.’ ➱ continued on page 3