Thousands sign petition to change pension rules launched by Shropshire surgeon
A Shropshire surgeon has launched a petition against changes to pension tax which has resulted in some doctors in the NHS refusing to work extra shifts.
Consultants have begun refusing to work beyond their planned hours after receiving unexpected tax bills, following new pension rules in 2016.
Mark Cheetham, who works at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, says many doctors are being taxed more than they earn, which has led to them refusing to do overtime, and as a result waiting lists for routine surgery have risen.
Mr Cheetham is calling for the Government to 'scrap the pension annual allowance taper' and the online petition has been signed by more than 17,300 people.
The petition states: "Recent changes in pension taxation have reduced the annual allowance which can be put into a pension to £40,000 a year.
"In 2016 'tapering' was introduced which can further reduce the annual allowance to £10,000.
"The combined effect of the tapered annual allowance and inflexible public sector pension schemes is having a catastrophic effect on retention and productivity in the public sector.
"In particular in the NHS, where consultants are not able to afford to do extra work for fear of a punitive tax bill well in excess of any income earned."
'Unfair'
Mr Cheetham says it is 'unfair' and he knows of someone who was paid £2,000 to do extra work which resulted in a tax bill of £9,000 – meaning they actually paid £7,000 to do overtime.
He said: "In practice what's happened is the amount you are allowed to pay into a pension has reduced significantly, and it's reduced by 96 per cent over the last 10 years.
"I can't control how much I pay into my NHS pension, I'm either in it or I'm out of it.
"In addition I don't know how much I paid into my NHS pension in the last financial year, and I'm not likely to find out until about October.
"It's making it impossible to plan.
"In the health service at the moment there's about 11,000 doctors vacancies so we have far fewer doctors in the UK than most other western countries, and that means our doctors work quite a lot harder.
"Most consultants are on a basic 40 hour week but in my area, most of my consultants are doing an extra 10 to 12 hours a week on top of that."
The Heath Secretary, Matt Hancock, has promised to fix the issue, and called it a 'ridiculous pension rule' which has entirely unintended consequences.
The petition needs to gain 100,000 signatures before it is considered for debate in Parliament.
It can be signed at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/268161
