How much is the NHS pension for a Foundation Doctor?

The NHS pension for a Foundation Doctor earning around £48,000 depends on your years of service, scheme sections, and retirement age. In the 2015 CARE scheme, each year accrues 1/54th of pensionable pay, so one year at £48,000 adds roughly £889 to your annual pension, revalued each year at CPI + 1.5%. Use the calculator below to model your specific circumstances.

Is the NHS pension worth it for FY1/FY2 roles?

The NHS pension is a defined-benefit scheme, so employer funding does not build an individual pot in the way a DC pension does. For 2026/27, NHSBSA says employers continue to pay 14.38% directly, with central funding covering a further 9.4% for NHS organisations. Opting out can mean losing future defined-benefit accrual and related scheme benefits, so decisions should be checked carefully against your own circumstances.

How is the NHS 2015 pension calculated?

The NHS 2015 scheme is a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) pension. Each year you accrue 1/54th of your pensionable pay as annual pension. Previous years' accruals are revalued annually at CPI + 1.5% while you remain an active member. Your normal pension age is your state pension age, or 65 if later. You can usually exchange part of your annual pension for tax-free lump sum at retirement, subject to scheme and tax limits.

NHS Pension Calculator

NHS pension for a Foundation Doctor — your pension starts accruing from day one of FY1.

Estimate your NHS pension as an FY1 or FY2 foundation doctor with total pay around £48,000 including banding. See projected pension and career trajectory.

By Pension Bible EditorialLast reviewed April 2026

Foundation doctors join the NHS pension scheme from their first day as an FY1, typically aged 23–25. Following the 2024 resident-doctor pay deal, basic pay is £38,831 for FY1 and £44,439 for FY2 (2025/26). Banding supplements and on-call intensity payments — typically around 20–40% on top of basic — push total pensionable pay for many foundation doctors into the high £40,000s to mid £50,000s range; this calculator pre-fills at £48,000 as a representative figure. What makes foundation training unique from a pension perspective is the certainty of rapid pay progression: within seven or eight years, most doctors will have moved through core or specialty training into registrar-level pay in the £65,000–£90,000 range including supplements, and many will eventually reach consultant salaries above £109,000. Every year of CARE accrual at foundation level is revalued at CPI + 1.5% during active membership, so each pension slice earned in FY1 will have grown significantly in real terms by retirement. Foundation doctors who qualified as mature students — having worked in other NHS roles first — may already hold legacy 1995 or 2008 benefits from their earlier service, making their pension position more complex than their peers.

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Sources

NHS Business Services Authority — Pensions — Official administrator of the NHS Pension Scheme — member guides, forms, and scheme rules
NHS Pension Scheme (gov.uk) — Department of Health and Social Care scheme documentation, regulations, and contribution rates
NHS Employers — Agenda for Change pay — Current AfC pay scales used as pensionable pay for the 2015 CARE scheme
McCloud remedy — NHS Pensions — Official guidance on the 2015 remedy period and retrospective choice between legacy and 2015 schemes
HMRC annual allowance — Tapered annual allowance rules that affect senior NHS clinicians and GP partners

Figures and scheme mechanics are cross-checked against these primary sources. Last reviewed April 2026. If any figure looks out of date, email hello@pensionbible.co.uk.

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