Don't trust your McCloud remedy statement blindly

The McCloud remedy moved eligible members' 2015–2022 service back into their legacy scheme and triggered a mass recalculation of benefits — for dentists, layered on top of practitioner rules, annualisation and years of estimated pensionable earnings. Unsurprisingly, statements have arrived with errors: missing service, wrong earnings, contribution tiers misapplied.

Why it matters more for dentists

Practitioner members' benefits are built from career earnings records assembled across practices and payment systems. Every estimate that was never corrected, every year a reconciliation didn't happen, is now baked into a remedy figure that looks authoritative because it's printed on an official statement.

The sense-check worth doing

• Does the service record match your actual career — every practice, every gap?
• Do the pensionable earnings by year look like your records (your accountant's superannuation reconciliations earn their keep here)?
• Do the remedy-period figures reflect choices you actually have, explained in terms you understand?

If you're within sight of retirement — or making any decision that leans on the statement — verify first. We check statements against clients' earnings history as part of the NHS pension work we do as standard, and bring in an NHS-fluent IFA where the decision needs regulated advice.