LTA is the total amount you could build up from all your pension savings in your lifetime without incurring a tax charge.
If you retired on or after 6 April 2023, there will be no LTA charge on the pension benefits paid to you. Any charges already being paid will continue.
If the lump sum payment exceeded the LTA limits, a tax charge at your marginal rate was applied to any excess lump sum.
LTA was abolished in April 2024.
From 6 April 2024, new allowances were introduced.
All pension benefits you accumulated and in payment within and outside the NHS Pension Scheme used up a percentage of your LTA apart from:
- State Pension
- any pensions being paid to a dependant or survivor
The percentage was normally calculated at the point at which you take your pension benefits. This is known as a benefit crystallisation event (BCE).
For the NHS Pension Scheme, a crystallisation event is the later of either:
- the payable date
- the date all the information to authorise benefits was received
Further BCEs took place each time a pension was revised due to a revision through a sub-award using the relevant LTA at the time the benefits were increased.
The percentage was calculated on the actual benefits put into payment.
If you claimed your pension before 6 April 2024, your award letter confirmed the percentage of LTA your NHS Pension benefits used.
The standard LTA on 5 April 2024 was £1,073,100.
Without LTA protection, NHS Pension benefits would have exceeded the standard LTA at the following pre-commutation pension amounts:
- 1995 Section - £46,656
- 2008 Section - £53,655
- 2015 Scheme - £53,655
The maximum retirement lump sum you could take tax-free was £268,275.
If you had LTA protection from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), you might have been able to take a higher tax-free retirement lump sum.
Find more information about LTA on our website.
Percentage of LTA
We did not estimate the percentage of LTA your NHS Pension benefits used. This could not be calculated accurately until your pension benefits were put into payment.
If who retired on or after 6 April 2006, you can check the percentage of LTA you used on your award letter.
Applying for LTA protection
The deadline for applying for Fixed or Individual Protection (IP) 2016 through HMRC was 5 April 2025.
You had to provide a valuation of your NHS Pension.
If you needed a valuation of a money purchase additional voluntary contributions (MPAVC), you must have contacted your provider.
You could still claim your pension while waiting for an LTA protection certificate.
We calculated your award on the basis you did not have protection. This was recalculated on receiving confirmation protection had been granted.
Confirmation we accepted included a copy of the:
- certificate
- email from HMRC confirming the type and value of your protection