“Is it worth being in the NHS Pension Scheme or should I be doing something else to fund my retirement?”
With NHS Pension Scheme contributions as high as 14.5% of pay for some, penalties of 5% per year if you want to take benefits ‘early’ at 60, and possible tax charges if your NHS pension causes you to breach your annual or lifetime allowances, that’s a question you could easily be forgiven for asking.
On the one hand, the new pension freedoms have made personal pensions the obvious, more attractive alternative. On the other hand, the NHS Pension Scheme’s fringe benefits are hard to replicate elsewhere. Benefits such as the Ill Health Retirement Pension, Life Cover (death in service), and uplifts for the spouses pension.
