You may get a refund of your pension contributions if you meet all the following:
- left the Scheme before your Normal Pension Age (NPA)
- have less than 2 years qualifying membership in the Scheme - this includes membership in previous sections of the Scheme
- have not had a transfer into the NHS Pension Scheme from a personal, money purchase, or stakeholder pension
- are no longer contributing to the Scheme unless there’s been a disqualifying break between your current and previous period of membership
- have not claimed any pension benefits
A disqualifying break is a break of 12 months or more in the 1995 and 2008 Section or more than 5 years in the 2015 Scheme.
If you've claimed a refund and rejoined within a month, the refunded membership counts as qualifying membership.
Income tax is deducted before we refund your pension contributions.
If you’ve left employment due to sickness or redundancy, interest is added automatically before we refund your pension contributions.
Employer's pension contributions are not refunded. The balance of the Scheme's funding is dependent on employers' contributions remaining in the Scheme.
Re-employed pensioner members
If you claim your pension benefits, return to work and rejoin the scheme, you cannot claim a refund of any contributions made to the new membership. You must opt out in the first month and your employer may refund your first month’s contribution.
Read more information about claiming a refund on our website.
Claiming a refund
To claim a refund, you must complete an RF12 form.
If you’re in active NHS employment, send this to your employer.
If you have more than one NHS employer, you only need to submit one RF12 form. This must go to the most recent employer that the refund period relates to. If you left that employment over 7 years ago, send your RF12 form to NHS Pensions.
If you’re no longer working in the NHS, send your RF12 form to NHS Pensions.
If your RF12 form is processed through Electronic Staff Record (ESR), it can take up to 12 weeks to receive your refund request.
Receiving a refund
We'll aim to pay your refund within one month of receiving your RF12 form request.
If there's information missing, we'll aim to pay your refund within one month of receiving all the information needed.
Once we authorise your refund, we'll aim to make a payment to your bank account within 7 working days.
If you opt to have the refund paid to a nominee, a cheque in their name will be sent to their address.
A letter confirming the payment of your refund will be sent to you.
Incorrectly submitted an RF12 form
If you're a Scheme member who's incorrectly submitted an RF12 form, contact your employer.
If you're an employing authority (EA) and you've incorrectly submitted an RF12 on behalf of one of your employees, you must email a copy of the RF12 to pensionsrefunds@nhsbsa.nhs.uk.
Other options instead of claiming a refund
If you have less than 2 years qualifying membership in the Scheme you may have other options other than claiming a refund.
If you intend to rejoin within 5 years of leaving, your new membership will be linked to your previous membership. The benefits you previously built up will be revalued each year using the in-scheme revaluation rate.
If do not you intend to rejoin you may be able to transfer your benefits to another pension scheme.