The current scheme (the 2015 scheme) is career-average: each year you bank a slice of pension based on that year's pensionable earnings, and every banked slice is revalued generously until you retire. It's guaranteed, index-linked, backed by the government, and includes life and ill-health cover. Replicating it privately would cost dramatically more than your contributions — which is why "should I opt out?" is almost always the wrong question.
As a dental practitioner your pensionable pay is your NHS earnings (for associates, a share of NHS income with superannuation deducted at source by the practice). Contribution rates are tiered by income — and for practitioners the tier can be set by reference to annualised income, so part-year working, maternity leave or an unusual pattern can land you in a different tier than you'd expect. It's a dentist-specific quirk that generalist advisers routinely miss.
Pension growth above the annual allowance (£60,000 for most people, tapering down for very high earners) triggers a tax charge. NHS scheme "growth" is measured by a formula that can spike in high-earning years — so a great year clinically can quietly become a tax problem. Monitor the position before the tax year ends while there's still time to act, and when a charge does arise, weigh paying it personally against the Scheme Pays route, where the scheme pays and your pension is adjusted.
The McCloud remedy moved a generation of members' 2015–2022 service back into their legacy scheme and rewrote their statements. The recalculations have been wrong often enough that ours is a sceptical practice: we sense-check remedy statements against your actual service and earnings history before anyone relies on them for retirement decisions.
NHS income routed through a limited company generally can't be superannuated — the pension cost of incorporating is real and usually understated by whoever's selling the company. The full comparison lives in our incorporation guide.
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.
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Almost always no — the scheme's guaranteed, index-linked benefits far exceed what your contributions would buy privately, and it includes life and ill-health cover. The rare exceptions involve severe annual allowance positions late in a career, and that's a decision to model carefully with advice, not a lunchroom rule.
For dental practitioners, contribution tiers can be set by reference to income annualised over the period you were pensionable — so part-year working or unusual patterns can push you into a higher or lower tier than your headline earnings suggest. It's specific to practitioners and frequently mishandled.
Possibly, in high-earning years — NHS scheme growth is measured by formula and can exceed the £60,000 allowance (less if you're tapered). The key is monitoring growth before year end and choosing deliberately between paying any charge personally or using Scheme Pays.
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