My Lords, I too have signed both amendments which, as has been said, relate to the current situation of the punitive pension taxation on doctors in the NHS. The annual allowance means that retired doctors working additional hours may incur large tax bills even if they have had only a modest rise in pensionable pay; and the taper results in a further problem, as there is an effective tax cliff edge where people can incur additional tax bills of up to £13,500 if they cross the threshold by as little as a pound.
This huge disincentive to retired doctors who are working to fill staff shortfalls in the NHS has exacerbated the existing pressure. As the noble Lord, Lord Warner, said, the impact was such that NHS England took the step of agreeing to cover the annual allowance payment for NHS doctors for this tax year as a temporary mechanism. As he also said, it seems that so far there are no plans for this to be a long-term solution.
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The BMA’s briefing tells us that the scale of the pensions problem and its impact on the NHS workforce and patient services cannot be underestimated. It is, unfortunately, being felt across the country. Waiting times for cancer and routine care are the longest on record. A&E performance is the worst since records began, and 11 million patients are experiencing unacceptable waiting times for GP appointments as doctors continue to be forced to reduce their work to avoid huge, disproportionate tax bills. There is an urgent need for the Government to address this situation. Amendment 83 calls for a review of the annual allowance and taper; Amendment 86 calls for the current short-term mitigations to be extended into the future on a permanent, statutory basis. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, I want to put pressure on the Government. As she ably described, this could be approached in a number of different ways. I hope that we can put pressure on the Government, and I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say about how this situation can be resolved.