I'm band 6 clinical staff in the NHS and about to go off on maternity leave in a few weeks with my second baby. Last time, I recall that when I came back from mat leave, somehow I owed the pension scheme loads of money so I had massive deductions taken from my payslips for the first few months back.
I spent hours trying to figure out why and chase the relevant people in payroll, pensions etc, and was basically just assured that it was all correct and that the small print I'd signed when I joined the pension scheme stated that if I went on any kind of unpaid leave (I took the full year of mat leave so a portion of it is unpaid) I would owe the pension deductions that would have been taken had I been working, once I returned after the period of leave. The woman I spoke to in payroll sort of alluded - off the record - that in my position she would probably opt out of the pension scheme for her year of mat leave and then rejoin when she returned, although she said that isn't the official advice.
I find NHS pay, payslips, pay rises, deductions etc absolutely impenetrable and impossible to understand at the best of times (the cynic in me thinks it's probably no accident that nobody I speak to at work has any understanding of what they're supposed to be being paid or whether their payslips are really correct or not!) but add in things like maternity pay and pension deductions and I haven't got a hope.
Is there anyone here who understands this aspect of the pension scheme?? Would it really damage my long-term pension pot a great deal to opt out for a year? Are there penalties associated with leaving the scheme for a period of time and then rejoining??
I joined the NHS in 2017, so I'm on the 2015 pension scheme. Every month a couple hundred pounds is deducted from my pay slip to go towards my pension, but on my Total Reward Statement it looks like my 'Pension Earned' is only about £600 a year. The whole thing is utterly confusing to me.