Doctors to sue over 'discriminating' pension scheme

At least a dozen doctors are to take legal action against the government because they believe they were forced to join a pension scheme that will result in huge financial losses when they retire.

In 2015, the NHS closed two Sections of the NHS Pension Scheme, moving many NHS staff onto a newer 2015 scheme with less valuable retirement benefits. However, it also allowed some older doctors to stay on the previous schemes until they either retired or they moved to the new scheme at the end of a fixed transition period.

The British Medical Association, who’s legal team are actioning the lawsuit, alleges that the failure to allow younger doctors to benefit from these transitions constitutes unlawful age discrimination. The BMA wants the government to agree that 2015 NHS Pension Scheme does unlawfully discriminate against its younger members and wants the government to scrap the scheme so that doctors are not adversely affected by it in later years.

Chaand Nagpaul, BMA chair of council, said: “Although doctors’ pension schemes are different, the BMA believes the underlying legal principles are essentially the same and we want to bring a challenge on behalf of the UK’s younger doctors regarding the legality of the 2015 NHS Pension Scheme.

“In March of this year, the BMA wrote to the Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock warning him of the intention to take legal action. Letters were also sent to the Scottish and Northern Ireland Governments on behalf of members in those nations. We have made our intention and position very clear and we expect to support many more doctors in the coming month.”