IN answer to Alan Fitzpatrick's question (Letters, September 12) about how the tax liability of doctors’ (and all others’) pensions is calculated: basically, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs takes the first year's pension, multiplies it by 20, adds on any lump sum benefit, and the grand total equals that individual's pension "pot". Any excess is then taxed at 55 per cent. This levy has to be paid up front. For some, this can be the equivalent of one to two years' take-home pay, before the pension can be accessed.
I accept Mr Fitzpatrick's contention that tax due must be paid. However, where the problem arises is that, in 2010, the size of the pot was £1.8 million. However, it has since steadily reduced, and when I retired from the NHS in January 2015, it was down to £1.25 million, then fell further, to £1.0 million, although it has since increased in line with inflation and is now (I think) about £1.03 million.
So you have a group of people who are feeling that they have been treated very shabbily, since some of this money may have been earned by giving up family and hobby time to deal with waiting list initiatives, or perform other distinguished service for the NHS only to find that they have unwittingly blundered into a financial minefield. Perhaps this was the intention of our scheming political class.
The same reckoning applies to anyone else in the public or private sector who earns similar amounts of money and contributes to a pension scheme.
Christopher W Ide, Waterfoot.
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