Information for independent financial advisors (IFAs)

To request information about a deceased member, you'll need to submit a Letter of Authority addressed to:

NHS Pensions
PO Box 683, Unit 5
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE5 9EE

The Letter of Authority should include:

• the deceased member’s full name
• their membership (SD) number or National Insurance number
• their date of birth
• their date of death
• their full address
• details of the individual or organisation being given authority (if the organisation has a head office the postal address must be included on the letter)

The letter must be clearly signed and dated by the member's legal personal representative (LPR) or next of kin and by the individual or organisation they're nominating to communicate with us.

A Letter of Authority can specify what information the LPR would like us to share on their behalf or a general request, and what format this information is provided in.

A LPR may have more than one Letter of Authority in effect at a time. Each will be valid for 3 years from the date received, unless authority is withdrawn earlier by the LPR.

You can email the letter to nhsbsa.pensionsmember@nhsbsa.nhs.uk

If you're emailing a Letter of Authority, you should provide the deceased's membership number (previously known as SD) in the title of your email. This will help us to locate the record quickly.

We are unable to correspond with the next of kin, LPR or with a named 3rd party about any lump sum on death and/or dependent's benefits payable to a legal spouse, civil partner, qualifying scheme partner, death benefit nominee or dependent child without the specific claimant's written authority, specifically if the LPR and any of the above are not the same person.

Information guide

The survivors guide (PDF: 377KB) provides a general overview of the life assurance and family benefits provided by the NHS Pension Scheme.

Information about the Scheme

Pension Scheme Fund

The NHS Pension Scheme is a mutually assured Scheme whereby contributions from both members and employers are paid to the Exchequer, which meets the cost of the Scheme benefits.

The NHS Pension Scheme does not have an invested pension fund in line with the private sector but as a statutory scheme, benefits are fully guaranteed by the Government.

Scheme Administrator

The Scheme Administrator is the NHS Business Services Authority, a Special Health Authority.

Scheme Rules

The NHS Pension Scheme (England and Wales) is an unfunded occupational pension scheme and is "registered" under the Finance Act 2004.

The NHS Pension Scheme Tax Reference (PSTR) number for the 1995/2008 Scheme is 00328820RJ and for the 2015 Scheme is 00820574RJ.

The Scheme was contracted out of the State Second Pension (S2P) under the Pensions Act 1995 until 5 April 2016.

The rules of the NHS Pension Scheme are laid down in regulations agreed by Parliament. They are the National Health Service Pension Scheme Regulations 1995 and subsequent amendments, National Health Service Pension Scheme Regulations 2008 and subsequent amendments plus National Health Service Pension Scheme Regulations 2015 and subsequent amendments. You can view these on our website.

We are unable to access our records to answer specific questions by telephone. Requests for information must be made in writing.

The NHS Pension Scheme is an annual update scheme, with the scheme year running from 1 April to the following 31 March each year.

The annual update must be provided to NHS Pensions:

• 2 months after the scheme year end for employed staff (31 May each year), excluding salaried GPs (known as officers)
• 11 months after the year end for practitioners, GPs and non-GP providers (28 Feb each year) through Primary Care Support England (PCSE) or their local health board (LHB)

If your query is about contributions in the current scheme year, you should contact the employer or local administrator for your client (the member) in the first instance.

A scheme overview is available on our Membership of the NHS Pensions Scheme page.

All requests for information should be submitted to nhsbsa.pensionsmember@nhsbsa.nhs.uk

Total Reward Statement (TRS) or Annual Benefit Statement (ABS)

A TRS is provided to members each year through Electronic Staff Record (ESR).

If registered, an ABS can be accessed by members each year via the My NHS Pension portal.

Members must access their TRS or ABS first before we can issue copies to third parties.

If the statement is unavailable after accessing, you can then request a free age estimate only on behalf of the member directly from NHS Pensions by using the estimate request form on our Getting an estimate of your pension page.

You can find more information about TRS and ABS on our Total Reward Statement pages.

Service history and pensionable pay history

Once received, service history and pensionable pay history requests will be sent to the service and membership teams for them to action.  

Pensions input amounts (PIA) for the previous 7 tax years

We can only provide copies of pensions savings statements if they were produced at the time and are already showing on the record for previous years. These requests will be sent to the annual allowance team to action and will be sent directly to the member.  

There are some common factors you may find helpful. 

These include:

• retirement factors, which can be found on our Retirement page
• annual allowance limit, which can be found on our Annual allowance page
• lifetime allowance limit, which can be found on our Lifetime allowance page
• divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership and transfer out non club factors, which can be found on our Divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership and your pension page, under 'Factors'

Scheme pays arrangements

You can find more information on scheme pays and how this works on our annual allowance webpage.

If you want to estimate scheme pays reductions from pension benefits, you can use the total amount owed and convert this into a benefits reduction by using the factors available on our Annual allowance page. The Scheme Pays Recovery factors can be found in the scheme pays section of this page, under ‘Making a scheme pays election’.

You'll also find a copy of our Pensions Savings Statement Guide on this page, which includes detailed explanations and examples about our pensions savings statements.

Each month, we provide an employer newsletter for scheme employers. This includes latest news, updates on recent projects or initiatives and any process changes.

Although the update is mainly aimed at employers, you can subscribe to this to stay up to date with the latest information by emailing us.

We provide a pensioner newsletter annually. This informs pensioners of any relevant news about their benefits and payments.

Recent newsletters are available on our Useful information for pensioners page, under 'Keeping in touch'.