The BMA is a trade union and professional association that represents and negotiates all doctors in the UK. A leading voice committed to excellent health care and a healthy population. An association that provides its members with exceptional individual services and support throughout their lives. The British Medical Association is the latest public sector union to threaten legal action if the government sticks to its plans to make its members pay the cost of the McCloud fund. The measures will not prevent doctors from retiring early or having to reduce their working hours due to punitive tax burdens, he said. The doctors intend to sue the government over the “discriminatory” NHS pension scheme they had to join, which will result in “huge financial losses” when they retire. The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced that it will help doctors take legal action. His lawyers have written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock warning him of his intention to take legal action. Letters have also been sent to the Scottish and Northern Irish Governments on behalf of members of these countries. The lawsuit follows an appeals court ruling last year that found the government discriminated against judges and firefighters on the basis of age, race and equal pay when it comes to changes to their pension systems. Although the rules are different, the underlying legal principles are, in the BMA`s view, essentially the same. The outcome of legal challenges to the judges` and firefighters` decision could influence a legal challenge to the legality of the 2015 NHS pension scheme on behalf of young doctors. BMA Acting Treasurer Dr Trevor Pickersgill said: “In 2015, the NHS closed two sections of the NHS pension scheme, transferring many NHS staff to a newer 2015 system with less valuable pension benefits.
However, it also allowed some older physicians to remain in previous systems until they retired or transitioned to the new system at the end of an established transition period. The BMA argues that not allowing young doctors to benefit from these transitions constitutes unlawful discrimination on the basis of age. On 1 April 2015, the NHS Pension Scheme 2015 (NHSPS) was introduced, with around 75% of NHS staff joining the scheme at that time. However, older doctors are protected from these changes; Members elected on 1. Individuals in April 2012 have reached the National Retirement Age (NPC) within 10 years, are fully protected from the 2015 NAPS, and remain in the old system. Young doctors, i.e. doctors who were more than 13.5 years away from their NPA on 1 April 2012 or who joined the scheme on 1 April 2015, do not have such protection under NHSPS 2015. Pickersgill pointed to similarities between pension changes and changes to the firefighter system, allowing older firefighters to stay in the existing and better retirement system. while younger members had to switch to a new system worse, resulting in significant financial losses. “The government has announced it will appeal this decision, but the BMA demands that if this appeal fails, the government will accept that the 2015 NHS pension scheme unlawfully discriminates against its younger members.
The BMA wants the government to scrap the program so doctors are not disadvantaged in the years to come. “Many doctors were working in retirement on the basis of belonging to the former sections of the NHS pension system and had planned this plan, but these plans were completely ignored once discriminatory government changes were introduced.” The BMA said the dispute was over a cost-control mechanism that is part of the 2015 pension system, which includes many NHS doctors. “When Lord Hutton reformed pensions after his report in 2011, he gave the public sector a 25-year guarantee that if pensions become too cheap or too expensive compared to a predefined target – the cost control mechanism – systems will be changed to take this into account. We provide information, advice and measures on occupational pensions for UK doctors, including NHS pension schemes, annual and lifetime allowances and more. Proposals to reform doctors` pensions announced by the government on September 22 would provide “nothing but band-aids” to the challenge of stemming the flow of senior doctors from the NHS, the BMA has warned. However, in a December 2018 decision, the Court of Appeal found that the government discriminated against the two groups on the basis of age, race and equal pay with respect to changes to their pensions. “Instead, the government chose to use this surplus to fund its own mistake, which is obviously unfair. He attempted to remedy an injustice – an illegal act of ageism – by another that has no reasonable basis. We will take the strongest measures to defend ourselves against this. Now the BMA has written to the Finance Ministry and Health Minister Sajid Javid, threatening legal action. As FTAdviser reported earlier this month, the firefighters` union sent a letter to the UK Treasury signaling its intention to file a judicial review of plans to make members foot the bill for the lawsuit – sparked by a legal case aimed at preventing age discrimination in public sector pensions.
In accordance with their “ABCD priority list” (A = ambulance, B = backlog, C = nursing and D = doctors and dentists), pensions were on the line of work to support physicians. They were mentioned eight times in the scheme`s accompanying report, citing changes to pension rules aimed at retaining experienced NHS staff and removing barriers to staff returning from retirement. Dr Vishal Sharma, chairman of the BMA`s pension committee, said: “It is fundamentally wrong for the government to pass on the costs of eliminating age discrimination, for which it was solely responsible, to members of the NHS pension system. ” The BMA questions the government`s measures that lift the suspension of the cost control mechanism and introduce the costs of the McCloud appeal in an effort to resume the cost control mechanism and rethink the evaluation of the system. » Erroneous pension statements forced doctors to become accountant and medical savvy The BMA took legal action against the government in 2019, but the UK government is now trying to shift the cost of the McCloud Remedy2 to the previous assessment of the system.