A Total Rewards Statement (TRS) shows you an estimate of the annual pension income entitlement, and lump-sum entitlement (where relevant) of your NHS Pension – this will be calculated to a particular date, and will assume that benefits are taken at the ‘normal pension age’ as applies to the respective scheme.
If you’ve been in the scheme long enough to have been a member of the ‘old’ 1995 or 2008 schemes, there will be two parts to the TRS – a 1995/2008 section and a 2015 section, if you’re relatively new to the NHS there may just be a 2015 scheme section to the statement.
How do I get a TRS?
In theory, the statements should be updated annually, usually in August (if information is not available in time for the August statement run, an updated statement may be available in December).
You should be able to access your statement via the Total Rewards website or via ERS. The statements will not be mailed out to you, you will have to actively seek them out…
Why can’t I access my TRS online?
If I had £1 for every time I’d been asked that question…I would currently be SCUBA diving in the Galapagos…
But in truth there are numerous reasons why a TRS may not be available, some of the most common reasons being:
- Change of address / personal details which have not been registered with NHS Pensions or cannot be confirmed via the ‘verify’ process online
- The pension record has not been updated in full / there is outstanding information
- Concurrent officer and practitioner roles
- Added years
- Pension sharing orders
There are many more reasons why it might be difficult to access a statement. The important thing is to open up a line of communication with NHS Pensions about it (just call them, the number is 0300 330 1346 – they may be able to rectify the problem by posting a hard copy of the form to you, by calculating a manual statement where necessary or telling you why you can’t access a statement.
That last point is very important. The whole process can, at times, highlight an error or issue in your record which will be much easier to resolve now, while you have access to documents and payroll departments with full information than at the point of retirement.
Why should I try to obtain a TRS annually?
Aside from giving you an idea of your pension, and perhaps aiding with retirement planning, or to identify any gaps in your record early on, the statements are an opportunity to make sure that your pension record is being updated correctly and as expected. Sometimes a Trust will make an error on your record. As hard is this may be to believe…the PCSE have been known to make errors on records as well…
Furthermore, a TRS is something that can help a specialist medical accountant or financial adviser set up calculations to project your pension growth, it can enable them to estimate your pension charge position (something HMRC expect you to do), or generate projections to help with tax and retirement planning.
What pension input year should my TRS be updated to?
This will depend on whether you are an ‘officer’ or a practitioner’.
As an Officer, the Trust will notify NHS Pensions of your pensionable pay after the relevant year end. Let’s say the year end is 31 March 2021, in this case a TRS for the 2020-21 year should be available to you in, or after August 2021.
As a GP Practitioner, NHS Pensions will rely on your Type 1 and/or Type 2 Pension Certificates having been submitted to and processed by the PCSE in order to update their records and make their calculations.
The deadline for submitting the 2019-20 Pension Certificate was 28 February 2021, all being well (and in the absence of any other problems) the 2019-20 Pension Savings Statement will be available to a Practitioner in, or after August 2021.
Statements for a Practitioner will always be at least a year ‘behind’ (the exception to this could be a GP Locum who is not required to complete a Type 2 form).
For clinicians with a mixture of officer and practitioner work the TRS will follow the timeline of a practitioner (and a manual calculation request is likely).
Having problems accessing your Total Rewards Statements or need some help with your pension record?
Contact doctors@honeybarrett.co.uk or call the Honey Barrett Medical Team on 01424 730345 who will be pleased to assist.
