FOI-03009

Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

##Request 

<p><i>‘1. Please provide a copy of your SOP or process for processing an attachment to earnings or court order request to deduct sums from NHS Pensions.</i></p>

<p><i>2. Please provide an annual breakdown between 2020-2025 of the number of individual NHS pensions had an attachment to earnings/deduction for debt recovery/court order for debt has been made against, and the total annual payment deducted.’</i></p>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 16 July 2025.  

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). 

##Our response 

##Question 1 - Please provide a copy of your SOP or process for processing an attachment to earnings or court order request to deduct sums from NHS Pensions 

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached. 

You will notice that some of the information is redacted. This is because the information is exempt under section 40(2) of the FOIA (personal information). 

Please see the following link to view the section 40 exemption in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40 

##Question 2 - Please provide an annual breakdown between 2020-2025 of the number of individual NHS pensions had an attachment to earnings/deduction for debt recovery/court order for debt has been made against, and the total annual payment deducted 

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.   

The workflow that is used for Change Deduction is used for various deductions not solely debt recovery and upon inputting into Compendia there are a vast amount of manual codes entered as part of the workflow. 

Due to the above, it is not possible to identify which cases are due to debt recovery without manual interrogation. At the time of your request there were 6,411 cases identified with a Change Deduction and we estimate it would take 5 minutes to check each case. 

Please see the following calculations which sets out the estimated cost for compliance with this request: 

6,411 x 5 minutes = 534 Hours and 15 Minutes 

Please be advised that due to the way that the information is held by the NHSBSA, it is not possible to submit a refined request under the appropriate limit. 

Please see the following link to view the section 12 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/12 

##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 2025”. 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: Attachment of earnings, Court order, Debt recovery, NHS Pensions
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log