NHS Pay Rise - Anyone remember the fuss earlier - well, it gets worse

[Motnight]

NHS Agenda for Change staff (ie nursing, administrative, in fact most people apart from doctors and dentists) were awarded a pay rise earlier this year. It was a minimum of £1400 (whole time equivalent). A couple of bands got more than this. It hasn't appeared in any pay packets yet.

I have just logged onto my intranet at work to find an announcement that because of increased pension contributions band 8a staff will actually be £128 a month worse off. Examples of band 8a jobs are matrons, nurse consultants, dental lab managers, programme managers. I am so, so angry. This doesn't affect me but I can't believe that this has happened to colleagues who have worked through the pandemic, save lives every day and this is the thanks that they get.

This also affects bands 3 and 5 (ie health care assistants and nurses) but no examples are given for these so I am hoping that it just means the pay increase isn't going to be what they expected not that they are losing money.

How can we expect staff to carry on working in these circumstances?

I honestly think that this is just another thing that the government have done to ensure that in 5 years time the NHS will have been split up and sold to the highest bidders.

If you do a search there’s at least one other thread about this.

I'm a trainee doctor and I get a well below inflation 2% rise, less than the agenda for change staff, and no separate amount either. It means I can't pay for childcare at the moment. No wonder NHS staff are leaving the UK, or their careers.

That’s going to hurt if they suddenly backdate it to April! They did similar to registrar grade doctors in London a few years back (the £1,000 London banding pushed them into the higher pension tier).
Is there any salary sacrifice scheme you can join? Also if you’ve just gone into the £47,846 to £54,763 band the good news is from October the contributions should be going down due to changes with the pension.
www.nhsemployers.org/articles/nhs-pension-scheme-changes-member-contributions-1-october-2022

I currently work bank as a HCA whilst I'm a student nurse, I had my payrise and back pay to april last year as my trust sorted bank staff first. The whole lot was swallowed by pension, I got nothing. The same will be the case going forward due to the pension changes, and even when I qualify I wont see a big increase in pay. It was such a back handed raise, I really hope staff that can vote, vote to strike. The pension changes should have been made public by the media when the raise was announced so staff get public support for strikes too.

Does that mean that when they backdate the increase, 8as will have a ton of money taken off them???

I believe pension changes are only from October 2022 and not April. Pay changes were April, so those affected will still get the backdated pay from April in September's pay packet with pension changes affecting October pay onwards

last month not last year sorry!

Yes, I have just read similar. A FAQ response states that bands 8a will from October be taking home more than their August pay. The question is how much more?!

@Auntieobem Yes

Our intranet definitely states that in September's pay will be £128 less than August pay for 8a staff. There is a link to financial hardship info.

yes - £280 for me...

when pension threshold and pay rise taken into account lowest of band 8a will have less take home pay than top of band 7

Why on earth would any band 7 move to an 8a for less money??? Especially just now?

How do increments work in England? In Scotland an 8a doesn't move up an increment until year 5 (or 6 maybe?)