Legislative requirements place a responsibility upon employers to provide information to NHS Pensions. This information will enable NHS Pensions to provide an Annual Allowance statement to members who could be affected.
The requirements specify that employers must provide pay (and membership) information to NHS Pensions by 6 July following the end of the tax year.
The information will enable us to generate a Pensions Savings Statement (PSS). This statement will inform members of whether they have exceeded the Annual Allowance limit in the NHS Pension Scheme.
We are expecting an influx of requests for Annual Allowance statements in July. In order to be able to respond to these requests, we must have the available pay and membership information from employers for 2016/17 by 6 July 2017 (information for previous years should already have been received). If the member’s record is not updated by the employer by this date, then HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) may impose fines and charges on employers of:
- up to £300 per member, and
- £60 per day per member until the member’s records are updated.
If the information is not provided, we will not be able to conduct the necessary calculations to check whether the member has exceeded the Annual Allowance limit meaning we will not then be able to generate a PSS and notify potentially affected members in a timely manner. Members could, as a result, be subject to fines and late payment penalties from HMRC.
You may have already, or will in the near future, receive bulk or individual requests from the Annual Allowance Data Cleanse Team. Please ensure any requests with the email subject header ‘Annual Allowance’ are actioned as soon as possible. Data cleanse activity is ongoing so you could still receive requests for information or data between now and 6 October 2017.
Special arrangements were made for Regional, Local Teams of Primary Care Support England in relation to the provision of information for GPs once their end of year certificates have been received and the provision of pension information to NHS Pensions after HMRC’s deadline.