GP locum pension contributions: fee, pensionable pay and payment explained

NHSBSA guidance states that freelance GP locum pensionable income is 90% of the fee excluding the employer contribution element. In simple terms, start with the relevant basic fee—not the total amount landing in your bank account—and apply 90% to identify pensionable pay. The remaining concepts, including employee and employer contribution amounts, are calculated from the applicable rules and rates.

The wording ‘excluding the employer contribution element’ matters. If an invoice shows a basic fee and an additional employer pension contribution, adding both together before applying 90% would confuse payment towards the contribution with the income on which pensionable pay is based. Expenses and unrelated additions also need their own treatment rather than being silently swept into the fee.

PCSE Online performs the official calculation after the relevant Locum A and B submissions. A spreadsheet or airGP record can help you anticipate and reconcile the result, but it should not be treated as pension advice or as a replacement for the official calculation.

The employee contribution is the member’s contribution and depends on the applicable tiered contribution rules. For GP income, the correct tier can require annualisation and consideration of wider GP pensionable income, not only one locum invoice. That is why hardcoding a remembered percentage into every future month is unsafe.

The employer contribution is a separate scheme contribution. Freelance locums using the A/B route are responsible for paying both employee and employer contributions to the administering body, even though the commissioning practice normally provides the employer contribution element as part of the commercial payment arrangement. The administration levy is included within the relevant employer contribution arrangements described by NHSBSA guidance.

Rates can change by scheme year and transition arrangements can make a headline overall employer rate different from the amount shown on a locum form. Use the current NHSBSA Locum A/B form and PCSE calculation for the work period. This page deliberately does not freeze a rate that may become wrong.

Your invoice layout, pension record and bank receipt may all show different totals for legitimate reasons. Label every number. ‘Pension £x’ is not enough to tell your future self whether x was pensionable pay, employer contribution received or total contribution paid.

Illustrative only: assume an eligible freelance practice session has a £600 basic fee, stated separately from any employer contribution element and expenses. Applying the NHSBSA 90% rule gives illustrative pensionable pay of £540 (£600 × 0.90).

Do not then assume £540 is the amount you pay. The contribution payment would reflect the applicable employee contribution rate, employer contribution arrangements and current official calculation. For example, if you use a purely fictional 10% employee rate only to understand the arithmetic, that component would be £54—but 10% is not a recommendation or statement of your rate. Check the scheme-year rules and PCSE result.

Illustrative only: an invoice displays a £1,000 basic fee for several sessions, £40 mileage/expenses and a separately labelled £143.80 employer contribution element. The cash invoice total is £1,183.80, but it would be wrong to call that entire total the freelance locum fee for the 90% calculation.

On the simplified facts above, illustrative pensionable pay is £900: 90% of the £1,000 basic fee. The £40 expense and £143.80 employer element remain separately labelled. The example is designed to show categories, not to validate the employer figure or decide whether the expense is payable or taxable. Use the correct current form and advice for the actual engagement.

Illustrative only: you earn £2,000 basic fees from eligible A/B practice work, £800 from private work and £500 from an OOH provider using SOLO. Do not apply 90% to £3,300 as one undifferentiated number. The illustrative A/B pensionable pay base begins with the eligible £2,000, producing £1,800 before the applicable contribution calculation.

The private income is not included in NHS locum pensionable pay. The provider should explain the pension handling for the SOLO engagement. Keeping the three categories attached to their sessions prevents a monthly invoice report being mistaken for a pension schedule.

A contribution record should preserve both inputs and outcome. Keep the scheme year, relevant basic fee, calculated pensionable pay, contribution tier used, employee contribution, employer contribution, payment date and official reference. If a rate is later corrected, you can see which historical entries used the earlier value.

Also retain cumulative information requested for Locum B and note other GP pensionable income that affects your tier review. This is an area where an accountant or pension adviser can help; an isolated invoice cannot establish your correct annualised tier.

airGP can keep the fee, session, organisation, pension status and logged date connected, supporting a check of contribution records against the work. It should not be used to override a PCSE calculation or decide your tier.

Do not rely on airGP as pension advice. airGP is separate from PCSE, NHSBSA and NHS England and is not an accountant or regulated pension adviser. Its contribution fields are tracking aids, not an eligibility decision or official calculation. It cannot prepare, approve, submit or pay an A, B or SOLO form; confirm the result through current official material.