It's probably the most valuable financial asset you'll ever hold, it doesn't behave like any other pension, and almost nobody checks it. Here's what every dentist should understand — with the tiers and thresholds in force from 1 April 2026.
Guide · Updated August 2026
Since 1 April 2022 every member is in the 2015 scheme, which is career average revalued earnings. Each year you bank a slice of pension worth 1/54th of that year's pensionable pay, and every banked slice is revalued on 6 April of the following year at CPI plus 1.5% until you retire or leave. Your eventual pension is the sum of all those revalued slices. It is guaranteed, backed by government, increased in payment, and carries life and ill-health cover.
Worked example — illustrative, using rates in force from 1 April 2026. An associate with £70,000 of pensionable earnings in 2026/27:
So £8,750 of her money attracts £16,646 of somebody else's, and buys £1,296.30 a year for life before revaluation has done anything. If CPI averaged the Bank of England's 2% target, revaluation at 3.5% a year would turn that single year's slice into roughly £3,063 a year by the time she reached 67 twenty-five years later — and that is one year's accrual out of a career.
This is why "should I opt out?" is almost always the wrong question. Opting out does not pause the scheme; it stops the employer contribution, the accrual and the cover, and none of it comes back.
Contribution rates are tiered by your actual annual pensionable pay. From 1 April 2026 the thresholds rose by 3.8%, in line with September 2025 CPI, which was above the Agenda for Change pay award for England — so some members moved down a tier this year without their pay falling. The tiers are:
Here is the part that catches people. The tier rate applies to all of your pensionable pay, not just the slice above each threshold. It is not a marginal system like income tax, so every threshold is a cliff edge.
She still banks more pension, so this is not a reason to turn down work. It is a reason to know where you sit before you agree a change to your NHS commitment mid-year — and a reason to check that the pensionable pay figure driving your tier is the right one in the first place.
For practitioners, pensionable pay may be annualised — scaled up to what you would have earned had you worked the whole year — and it is the annualised figure that sets your contribution tier, not the money you actually received.
Illustrative. An associate returns from maternity leave in October and earns £35,000 of pensionable pay in the six months to 31 March. On the face of it she sits in the 9.8% tier and would pay £3,430. Annualised, six months at £35,000 becomes £70,000 — which is the 12.5% tier. She pays 12.5% of the £35,000 she actually earned: £4,375. The annualisation costs her £945 on income she never received.
That is the rule working as designed, not an error — but it is routinely missed by advisers who treat a dentist like any other self-employed client, and it is worth planning around when you choose when to return, cut back or take a break. Anyone winding down towards retirement, taking a sabbatical, or starting part-way through a year should model the tier before the year starts.
Pension growth above the £60,000 annual allowance triggers a tax charge at your marginal rate. Growth in a career average scheme is measured by formula: the increase in your accrued pension over the year, multiplied by 16, after the opening value has been uprated by CPI.
For most dental practitioners, pure 2015-scheme accrual does not breach £60,000 on its own. The CPI uprating of the opening value offsets most of the CPI-plus-1.5% revaluation, which is why the dramatic annual allowance stories you hear from hospital consultants — driven by final-salary service revaluing on a promotion — mostly do not translate to dentistry. Practitioner service in the 1995 section was already career-average and dynamised, so there is no final-salary spike to trigger.
The real risk for a successful dentist is the taper. If your threshold income exceeds £200,000 and your adjusted income exceeds £260,000, the allowance falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income above £260,000, down to a floor of £10,000 — reached at adjusted income of £360,000.
Worked example — illustrative. A practice owner with NHS and private profits plus dividends totalling £280,000, and a pension input amount of £42,000, has adjusted income of about £322,000. Her allowance is reduced by (£322,000 − £260,000) ÷ 2 = £31,000, leaving £29,000. Her £42,000 of growth exceeds it by £13,000, and at 45% that is a £5,850 charge.
The answer is to monitor growth before the tax year ends, while there is still time to change something, rather than discovering it on a statement fourteen months later.
The McCloud remedy moved members' 2015–2022 service back into their legacy scheme and rewrote their statements. The recalculations have been wrong often enough that scepticism is the right default: we sense-check remedy statements against actual service and earnings history before anyone relies on them for a retirement decision. Our article on what to check on a remedy statement sets out the specific errors we keep finding.
NHSBSA is unambiguous: dental practitioners or performers who have set themselves up as a limited company cannot contribute to the NHS Pension Scheme. Incorporating NHS income does not reduce your pension — it stops it on that income entirely, along with the 14.38% employer contribution. On £95,000 of pensionable earnings that is £1,759 of guaranteed annual pension and £13,661 of employer money forfeited every year. The full comparison, worked in pounds at 2026/27 rates, lives in our incorporation guide.
Membership follows the NHS contract, not the building. Practice staff — practice managers, dental nurses, hygienists and therapists — cannot join the scheme, because they are not employed directly by the NHS. That is a common misunderstanding in practices that assume everyone on the payroll is covered, and it matters when you are designing a benefits package: see our guide to engaging hygienists and therapists. Locum dentists working under a GDS or PDS contract on an occasional basis can join, but earnings from an agency cannot be pensioned — our locum tax guide covers how that interacts with the rest of a locum's position.
Where decisions need regulated financial advice — retirement options, transfers, private top-ups — we work alongside your IFA, or introduce you to our independent advice partners. The tax and the numbers are our side; we make sure they're right first.
Deadlines coming up, rule changes that affect dentists, and one number worth checking — once a month, no spam.
Almost always no. Opting out does not pause anything — it stops your accrual, the employer contribution and the death and ill-health cover, and none of it is recoverable. On £70,000 of pensionable pay in 2026/27 you contribute £8,750 and attract £16,646 of employer and central contributions on top, buying £1,296 of guaranteed pension a year for life before revaluation. The rare genuine exceptions involve severe annual allowance positions late in a career, and even then reducing growth usually beats leaving. That is a decision to model with regulated advice, not a staffroom rule.
From 1 April 2026 there are six tiers based on actual annual pensionable pay: 5.2% up to £13,259; 6.5% from £13,260 to £28,854; 8.3% from £28,855 to £35,155; 9.8% from £35,156 to £52,778; 10.7% from £52,779 to £67,668; and 12.5% at £67,669 and above. Thresholds rose 3.8% this year in line with September 2025 CPI. The rate applies to all your pensionable pay rather than just the slice above each threshold, so crossing a threshold is a cliff edge rather than a gradual step.
For dental practitioners, pensionable pay may be scaled up to a full-year equivalent, and that annualised figure sets your contribution tier — not what you actually received. An associate earning £35,000 in six months after maternity leave is treated as being on £70,000, so she pays 12.5% rather than 9.8% on the money she genuinely earned: £4,375 instead of £3,430, or £945 more. It is the rule working as intended rather than an error, but it is routinely missed by non-specialist advisers and it is worth modelling before you change your hours.
Less often than folklore suggests from pure 2015-scheme accrual, because CPI uprating of the opening value offsets most of the revaluation, and practitioner service in the 1995 section was already dynamised rather than final salary. The real risk is the taper: with threshold income over £200,000 and adjusted income over £260,000, your £60,000 allowance falls by £1 for every £2 above £260,000, to a £10,000 floor at £360,000. Monitor your growth before 5 April, while you can still act on it.
Sometimes, and the gap is the problem. Mandatory Scheme Pays applies only where the charge exceeds £2,000 and your pension input for that scheme exceeds the standard £60,000 allowance. A charge caused by the taper frequently fails that second test — a £42,000 input against a tapered £29,000 allowance produces a real charge on growth well under £60,000, so the scheme is not obliged to settle it. You are then relying on voluntary Scheme Pays if your scheme offers it, or paying personally. Notify by 31 July in the year following the tax year.
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