- Conference
- 2006 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 30 December 2005
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that the NHS pension scheme regulations currently allow married males employed in the NHS to leave their widow a pension based on length of service from 24 March 1972. However, conference notes with concern that married female employees, and now those who enter into civil partnerships, can only have their length of service counted from 6 April 1988 for the purposes of calculating the pension benefits of their surviving spouse.
This rule applies irrespective of the person’s length of service. For example, a female NHS employee who retires in 2008 after 38 years’ service will lose 20 years of pension benefit that could count toward the pension benefits for her widower – i.e. nearly half the value that a male employee can leave his widow for the same period of service. This anomaly is based on long outdated working practices and social structures. Women make up the majority of NHS workers and the contributions they make to the future welfare of their spouses is vital and should be recognised.
Conference therefore condemns the unfair pension rights long serving married women and civil partnership NHS staff have in respect of benefits payable to their surviving partners on death. Conference calls upon the Service Group Executive Committee to raise this issue with the Department of Health and the Government and call the same NHS pension survivor benefits currently available to married male NHS employees, to be afforded to married females and those in civil partnerships.