NHS Pension Scheme 2026/27: what locum GPs actually need to know

The pension scheme year that started on 1 April 2026 runs to 31 March 2027. The bands have moved. The rates have not. The forms, the deadlines, and the allowances are mostly unchanged. Here is what is different, what is the same, and where most sessional GPs trip up.

This guide is for freelance and salaried GPs in the 2015 NHS Pension Scheme. The framework also applies to NHS pharmacists, dentists, and other practitioners who pay into the NHSPS, with the practitioner-specific bits flagged where they matter.

What changes for 2026/27

The headline change is small but real: the salary thresholds that decide which tier you sit in have been uplifted by 3.8 per cent, in line with the September 2025 CPI figure used for annual indexation.

The 2026/27 Agenda for Change pay award in England came in at 3.3 per cent, lower than CPI, so the thresholds were not bumped further. The "better of CPI or AfC" rule that has applied since April 2024 simply produced CPI this year.

What has not changed:

• The six contribution percentages (5.2 per cent up to 12.5 per cent).
• The employer contribution rate of 23.7 per cent in England and Wales.
• The bottom tier ceiling of £13,259, which is frozen because it is linked to the personal allowance.
• The Annual Allowance of £60,000.
• The Lump Sum Allowance of £268,275 and Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance of £1,073,100.
• The 2015 CARE scheme as the only active accrual route since 1 April 2022.

Pension scheme year vs tax year

This trips people up every April. The two clocks do not line up.

• NHS Pension scheme year: 1 April to 31 March.
• Income tax year: 6 April to 5 April.

Your 2026/27 NHS pensionable pay is your pensionable income from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Your Annual Allowance and self-assessment, however, sit on the income tax year.

If you draft your own management accounts as a locum, run a separate scheme-year column. It saves a painful reconciliation each February.

Tier bands and contributions

Here is the 2026/27 member contribution table, effective from 1 April 2026.

For comparison, the 2025/26 bands (still relevant if you are reconciling work performed before 1 April 2026) were 6.5 per cent up to £27,797, 8.3 per cent up to £33,868, 9.8 per cent up to £50,845, 10.7 per cent up to £65,190, and 12.5 per cent above that.

The contribution rate is applied to your actual annual pensionable pay, not your full-time-equivalent. As a freelance locum, that is the tier of your real earnings.

Pensionable pay for a freelance locum is 90 per cent of your gross fee. The 10 per cent flat deduction is in lieu of expenses and has been the rule since 2014. So a £500 session is £450 of pensionable pay.

Employer contributions:

• England and Wales: 23.7 per cent of pensionable pay.
• Scotland (SPPA): 22.5 per cent.
• Northern Ireland (HSC): 22.5 per cent (separate scheme; check HSCNI directly for any local variation).

If you are a freelance locum doing a £500 session and you are in the 9.8 per cent tier, your contribution to PCSE is £450 x (9.8% + 23.7%) = £150.75.

Form A and Form B reminder

The two-form process for freelance locums has not changed.

• Form A (GP Locum A): completed by you, then signed by the practice or NHS England (for appraisal work). Confirms the work and the fee.
• Form B (GP Locum B): your monthly summary of all Form As, generates the unique identifying reference, and is what PCSE matches the contributions against.

Both go through PCSE Online.

The single deadline to live by: 10 weeks. NHS Pensions Regulations are explicit. You cannot pension a period of locum work that ended more than 10 weeks ago. Late forms get rejected, and the pensionable accrual is lost.

A clean rule of thumb: invoices in this week, Form A in this week, Form B and contributions on the first business day of next month, and you never have to think about the 10-week cliff.

Annual Allowance, Lump Sum Allowance, and the LTA aftermath

The Lifetime Allowance was abolished from 6 April 2024. It has been replaced by two new allowances that govern tax-free lump sums, not total pension wealth.

For 2026/27 (the tax year):

• Annual Allowance: £60,000.
• Money Purchase Annual Allowance: £10,000 (only relevant if you have flexibly accessed a defined-contribution pension).
• Tapered Annual Allowance: kicks in if threshold income exceeds £200,000 and adjusted income exceeds £260,000. The minimum tapered AA is £10,000, hit at adjusted income of £360,000 or more.
• Lump Sum Allowance (LSA): £268,275.
• Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance (LSDBA): £1,073,100.

What this means in practice for a high-earning locum: the tapered AA is the live risk, not the LSA. Once locum profits, salaried sessions, partnership shares, and any private work push your total threshold income past £200,000, you need a serious conversation with a specialist medical accountant.

Out-of-hours work

OOH sessions are pensionable, and the rules are different from regular practice work.

• The OOH provider completes a GP SOLO form for each member doing pensionable work. The provider is responsible for collecting and forwarding contributions.
• You cannot opt out of pensioning your OOH income if you are an active scheme member.

Retire and return, McCloud

• Retire and return: the 16-hour limit on hours worked in the first month after retirement was permanently removed on 1 April 2023.
• McCloud remedy: only the 2015 CARE scheme has been open for active accrual since 1 April 2022.

FAQ

Did the employer rate change for 2026/27? No. England and Wales remain at 23.7 per cent. Scotland and Northern Ireland remain at 22.5 per cent.

My 2025/26 sessions were below the new 2026/27 band 2 ceiling. Do I get a refund? No. The band that applies is the band in force during the scheme year the work was done.

Is OOH work optional for pension purposes? No. If you are an active NHSPS member, all NHS practitioner work is pensioned, including OOH.

What if I miss the 10-week Form A deadline? The work cannot be pensioned. Submit on time or lose the accrual.

Has the LTA come back? No. Abolished from 6 April 2024 and replaced by the LSA and LSDBA, which are unchanged for 2026/27.

Sources

• NHSBSA: NHS Pension Scheme employer contribution rates 2026/27
• NHSBSA: NHS Pensions contribution rates for 2025/26
• NHS Employers: NHS Pension Scheme member contributions
• Report on uplifts to member contribution tier thresholds (gov.uk)
• HMRC: pension schemes rates and allowances
• PCSE: GP Locum A and B pension contributions
• SPPA: NHS Scotland member contributions
• BMA: NHS pension scheme as a sessional GP