Doctors have warned Rachel Reeves that they will quit the profession and leave waiting lists to spiral if their pensions are raided in the Budget next week. The Telegraph has more.
In a letter to the Chancellor, the British Medical Association (BMA) said its members would be left with “little option” but to reduce their workload or retire immediately if the “wrong changes” were made.
The influential union made four demands, including increasing the amount doctors can stash away in their pensions tax-free.
It also warned the Chancellor to make the NHS exempt from any increases to National Insurance or face the closures of more GP surgeries.
Ms. Reeves is expected to have pensions firmly in her crosshairs as she seeks to raise a reported £35bn in taxes during her first Budget on October 30th.
However, the BMA has warned her that doctors would reduce their workload or leave the profession altogether if punitive changes are made, which it says would “completely derail” the Government’s attempts to bring down record waiting lists. These changes include bringing back the lifetime allowance, introducing a flat rate of tax relief or reducing the tax-free lump sum.
In his letter to Ms. Reeves, BMA Pensions Committee Chairman Dr. Vishal Sharma also said: “After many years of doctors being left with little option but to take action, such as reducing their workload or leaving the NHS entirely, to mitigate the disproportionate impact of pension tax policy, the last thing that the NHS needs is further detrimental changes.”
Dr. Sharma also demanded that the Chancellor make changes to the annual allowance and taper rate, which would allow doctors to save more money for retirement tax-free.
Graham Crossley, NHS pension specialist at Quilter, said: “I appreciate the Government needs to come up with a fair tax policy, but consultants have been very much caught in the crosshairs of pension taxation over the past few years. £1 [of extra] income could trigger £22,500 in tax. It is as absurd as that.
“The BMA has highlighted things that would be a problem to the workforce. You don’t want to motivate these people to retire if you want to reduce your waiting lists.”
Just what we need: yet another excuse for the Government to exempt gold-plated public sector ‘defined benefit’ pensions while it raids the already much less generous private sector ‘defined contribution’ ones.
Worth reading in full.
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