The information requested for England and Wales is given in the following table.
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 Total pensions paid to members and dependants 3,031,811 3,207,040 3,412,532 3,777,414 4,294,797 Employer contributions 1,632,536 3,588,337 3,890,167 4,301,122 4,579,685 Employee contributions (including added years) 1,509,710 1,645,090 1,818,140 1,995,282 2,127,235 Total contributions paid 3,142,246 5,233,427 5,708,307 6,296,404 6,706,920 Note: Total pensions paid to members and dependants includes pensions and lump sums paid to members, and pensions paid to widows and dependants together with death gratuities. Source: NHS Pensions
(2) how many part-time employees of NHS ambulance service trusts and their predecessors were not included in the NHS pension scheme in each year prior to 1999 for which figures are available.
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Individuals who had been excluded from membership of the scheme prior to 1 April 1991 and wishing to make a claim were required to do so through an employment tribunal. Under employment tribunal rules claims had to be made while still working for that employer or within six months of the end of the employment relationship. Those successful in this process pay the contributions that are due to the scheme for the excluded period and their membership for this period is reinstated.
The NHS Pension Scheme is a final salary pension scheme, which offers a defined package of benefits to scheme members in accordance with the scheme regulations. NHS ambulance staff, like other national health service employees enjoy a benefit package which includes:
index linked retirement benefits
life assurance and family benefits
redundancy benefits
ill health retirement benefits
The aforementioned benefits are subject to the scheme member meeting relevant qualifying criteria set out in the scheme regulations. Full-time and part-time staff have the same benefits. The membership of part time staff is scaled according to the hours worked.