Thousands are at the end of their tether with Capita’s NHS pension service, Pulse reports.
GPs reports having to delay retirement, facing complications with divorces, spending tens of thousands of pounds on legal and accountancy fees, and having to devote a session a week to deal with PCSE’s poor administration.
Access to the total rewards statement (TRS) was a particular concern for GPs Pulse interviewed.
A 2018 National Audit Office report warned that problems with the service ‘potentially compromised patient safety’.
NHS England’s response to Pulse’s investigation has been to advise GPs with concerns to ‘contact the PCSE customer support centre’.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “There is a novel phenomenon of a GP’s dawning realisation that our friends and colleagues who work outside the NHS are looking forward to a quick and easy transition to retirement, whereas we are facing something more akin to Homer’s Odyssey.
“With all the stresses and strains going on at the moment within the NHS, pension concerns are not so much additional, but compounding, and a further reason to want to retire early and get the job over and done with while we still have the energy.
“The Government has got to stop taking short-term political decisions regarding how it looks after the GP workforce, and instead to tackle these endemic problems, to make sure as many of us stick around as long as possible.”
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