The NHS pension for locum GPs: Forms A and B, the 10-week rule and tiers

NHSBSA's 2026/27 Form A sets the boundaries. You can pension self-employed NHS work where you are:

• deputising for an absent GP, or working on a temporary basis in a surgery;
• doing appraisal work; or
• working as an individual rather than through a company.

You cannot pension it on Form A if:

• you trade as a limited company;
• you are a GP provider working as a locum in your own surgery; or
• it is self-employed out-of-hours or ICB work, which goes through the provider's Solo process instead.

Tell the practice from the outset that you intend to pension the fee. If you meant to pension it and then did not, the form says you must return the employer contribution element to the practice.

Form B is your monthly record, covering the NHS locum income you received in that calendar month. The 2026/27 guidance, in order:

1. Tick your provisional tier. In Part 1, tick the member contribution rate you expect for the year, based on annualising all your GP pensionable income.
2. List each Form A. On one line per period of work, enter the practice or health board, its EA code if known, the first and last days worked, the date you were paid, the pensionable pay from Form A box 2 and the employer contribution from Form A box 3.
3. Total your pensionable pay. In Part 2, add up the month's GP locum pensionable pay, excluding contributions, in box a.
4. Work out your own contribution. Enter your employee contribution at your provisional tier in box b, and any added years, additional voluntary contributions, additional pension or early retirement buy-out in boxes c to f, totalled in box g.
5. Add the employer contribution. Enter the total 14.38% employer contribution and administration levy from your Forms A in box h, and the total of employee and employer contributions in box i.
6. Keep the running total. Enter your cumulative freelance locum pensionable income for the pension year so far in box j.
7. Submit and pay by the 7th. In England submit through PCSE Online and pay using the reference it gives you; in Wales send the forms and payment to your local health board. Both are due by the seventh day of the month after the month you were paid.

Work in March 2027 that is paid in April 2027 still goes on the March Form B, so it counts towards the 2026/27 annualisation. Work that spans March and April must be invoiced as two months; a form that spans both is rejected.

By the seventh day of the month after the month you received the fee. The example on the 2026/27 Form B: contributions for payments received in June 2026 must reach NHS England through PCSE, or the local health board, by 7 July 2026. You forward both parts: your own contribution at your tier, and the 14.38% employer contribution that the practice added to your fee.

The two deadlines are separate. The 10-week rule runs from the work; the payment deadline runs from the fee. Miss the first and the work cannot be pensioned at all.

Both figures are on the 2026/27 Form A. The rate the practice pays, and the one in Form A box 3 and Form B box h, is 14.38%, which includes a 0.08% administration levy. The overall employer rate is 23.78% because of a transition arrangement from the last increase, and HM Treasury makes up the additional 9.4%. A locum never collects or forwards that 9.4%, so 23.78% should never appear on your forms.

Out-of-hours and salaried GP work are pensioned differently. PCSE says salaried work and work for an out-of-hours organisation are Solo work: the employer or provider deducts your contribution, pays both parts to PCSE monthly and completes the annual GP Solo form, and individual GPs should not submit Solo contributions themselves. The BMA adds that the organisation will ask you to check and sign the form, and that GPs who worked as a type 2 during the year, including salaried and Solo work, complete a Type 2 self-assessment form each year.

If you mix freelance locum work with out-of-hours or salaried work, your tier still has to reflect all of your GP income. More on the work itself is in our guide to out-of-hours and NHS 111 locum work.

• Before the work: tell the practice you will pension the fee, and make sure it will add the 14.38% employer contribution, since you have to forward it.
• After each engagement: submit Form A and ask the practice to approve it well inside 10 weeks.
• At month end: total the Forms A for fees received that month onto Form B, at your provisional tier.
• By the 7th: pay your contribution and the 14.38% employer contribution.
• Through the year: review your tier against your cumulative GP pensionable income, as Form B requires, and change the rate you tick if it has moved.
• Keep copies of every form.