FOI-03671

Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

##Request 

<p><i>‘Could you please pass the following freedom of information request to the relevant person in your organisation?:</i></p>

<p><i>How many lump sum pension payments were made outside of the 30 day target?</i></p>

<p><i>How many of these individuals received a payment in respect of the interest on the late payment?</i></p>

<p><i>What is the current delay in processing interest payments to cover late payment of pension lump sums?</i></p>

<p><i>In respect of the first two questions, could I have the information for the financial year 24/25 and also for the first half of 25/26?’</i></p>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 22 January 2026.  

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). 

##Our response 

##Question 1 - How many lump sum pension payments were made outside of the 30 day target? 

We have considered this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and are issuing a refusal notice under section 17 of the FOIA.  

The NHSBSA does hold the requested information; however, we estimate that the cost of compliance with the request would exceed the appropriate limit under section 12 of the FOIA.  

We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the non-central Government limit of £450. The limit has been specified in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the NHSBSA holds the information, and locating, retrieving, extracting and checking the information. 

We are unable to automatically determine if a lump sum payment specifically is late. We will therefore need to manually interrogate members records to ascertain when the lump sum was paid and to calculate the target date form the information held. We estimate this would take five minutes per record. There were 191,779 first award lump sums in 2024/25, and 93,677 in 2025/26 (up to 1 October 2025). 

Please see the following calculations which sets out the estimated cost for compliance with this request: 

191,779 + 93,677 = 285,456 

285,456 x 5 minutes = 1,427,280 minutes (23,788 hours) 

Please see the following link to view the section 12 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/12 

##Question 2 - How many of these individuals received a payment in respect of the interest on the late payment? 

The NHSBSA does hold the requested information; however, as with question 1, we estimate that the cost of compliance with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. 

We are unable to automatically determine whether an interest payment is in relation to a lump sum. This could be in relation to a pension, both a pension and lump sum or just a lump sum.  

We will therefore need to manually interrogate members records to ascertain whether the payment is in relation to a lump sum. We estimate this would take five minutes per record. There were 9,218 first award interest payments in 2024/25, and 12,509 in 2025/26 (up to 1 October 2025). 

Please see the following calculations which sets out the estimated cost for compliance with this request: 

9,218 + 12,509 = 21,727 

21,727 x 5 minutes = 108,635 minutes (1,810.5 hours) 

Please see the following link to view the section 12 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/12 

##Question 3 - What is the current delay in processing interest payments to cover late payment of pension lump sums? 

Under the NHS Pension Scheme regulations, interest becomes payable where any part of a qualifying payment – such as a pension or lump sum – is not made within one month (30 days) of the due date. The due date is either the date after the member retires from pensionable employment, or the date on which we receive all the information needed to calculate their benefits, whichever is later.  

This is an automated process, which means that interest is paid at the same time as benefits are paid. 

##Data Queries 

Please contact <a href=mailto:foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk>foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a> ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data. 

##Reusing the data and copyright 

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact <a href=mailto:communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk>communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a>. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented. 

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: 

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/  

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2026”. Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence. 

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.

Tags: Late Payment, NHS Pensions, interest payments, lump sum pension payments
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log