NHS Pension Scheme (PO-149)

Subject

Mrs Harris complains that:

• She was not informed that she should have stopped paying contributions when she attained maximum Scheme membership on 23 December 2004.
• She was denied the opportunity to take her maximum pensionable benefits from the Scheme with effect from 23 December 2004 following which she would then have been able to take a break in service before returning to work on a part-time basis.

The Ombudsman’s determination and short reasons

The complaint should be upheld against NHS Pensions on the basis that it was not unreasonable that Mrs Harris took no action to mitigate her losses in December 2008. However I consider that Mrs Harris could reasonably have been aware that she could take her pension without prejudicing her complaint by March 2010 and so could have mitigated her losses from that date.