On 27/07/2017 17:04, Mark wrote:
On Thu, 27 Jul 2017 16:45:27 +0100, Andrew
wrote:

On 23/07/2017 23:46, Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp wrote:
while the NHS staff get paid peanuts.

I can *really* assure you that NHS staff do not get paid
'peanuts'. 13 years of NuLab saw the NHS budget leap from
£38 Billion to £115 Billion and most of that increase was
down to increased staff costs. The headcount went from 960,000
in 1997 to 1,350,000 by 2007.

And remember, up to 2011 they only paid 6% superannuation
towards their 40/80'ths final salary pension (plus one-off
3x 1st years pension as a tax-free lump sum.).

So why does the NHS struggle to recruit qualified staff?


More to the point why are so many leaving early ?.

The answer is the pensions lifetime allowance limit.
G Brown brought this in, in 2006? with a limit of £1.8
million. Now it is £1 Million, which at current annuity
rates will buy an RPI-linked pension from age 60 of
about £30,000 without a lump sum. Many many NHS staff
are in this position (or better, Consultants earn up to
£150,000)

Anyone with a pension fund worth more than that has to pay
up to 55% tax on any excess when it was taken.(Or maybe
even before it is taken now).

this was introduced because people like Fred Goodwin were
being granted multi-million pound pension bungs to avoid
tax and NI.

Public servants were also ensnared but the value of their
pension was set at an arbitrary 20 times annual pension.
This was fine when annuity rates were 'normal', but not
when they had crashed.

As usual the law of unintended consequences kicked in and
before long all those massive pay rises that public servants
were enjoying up to 2008 plus a steady reduction in the limit
meant that all the high flyers like GPs, Consultants, heads
of departments suddenly found that they were going to be hit.

This is what is triggering the wave of 'early retirements'
followed immediately by re-engagement via an agency at
much higher gross income.

Also, NHS staff have discovered the 'trick' that computer
programmers and other IT staff used up to 2001 to work
as 'contractors' through a ltd co and agency.

This is why there are so many 'vacancies'. The jobs are
actually *filled* by the same people who left and came back
through an agency. many aren't 'vacant'.

And the governments attempts to make the employing
authority deduct PAYE and NI at source (IR35-style)
have been thwarted recently by threats of strike action.

So get used to paying for a very expensive NHS in years
to come.