6% of practitioners' income is paid in superannuation, with 14% added by the NHS.
General practitioners can retire on a full pension after 38 years of service. The pension is calculated on 1.4% of every year's superannuable income, inflation linked.
Hospital doctors except psychiatrists reach a full pension after 40 years and their pension relates to their last three years of NHS income. A full pension is 40/80ths of salary. A lump sum of 3 times the annual pension is paid.
After 30 years work if a practitioner has to retire because of ill health he will get a full pension.
If the pensioner dies, the widow gets half the pension. 60 is earliest a practitioner can retire with an NHS pension.
If the practitioner will not have done the required number of years he can top up his pension by buying added years. The problem is that they are quoted as a percentage of your income, which is alright when you start but twenty years later you still pay the same percentage.
As an alternative to added years it may be worth looking at free standing additional voluntary contributions from a private pension policy, with the advantage that the policy holder can stop and start or vary the contribution.
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