+ More mayhem for McCloud
The McCloud remedy has been causing concern for public sector workers since the term was first introduced into our regular language after the Court of Appeal ruling back in 2018.
To recap, the McCloud remedy aims to recompense NHS scheme members deemed to have suffered age discrimination when the 2015 pension scheme was introduced. Every stage of introducing the remedy has faced complications and delays as the pensions agency deals with the significant undertaking of correcting and recalculating figures for those impacted by the original discrimination.
The latest issue has left many doctors still waiting to receive their remediable pension service statements from NHS Pensions for 2022/23 – they were due to be delivered by 6 October. Many of those who have received their statement have found them to contain significant errors.
The statements show the recalculations of pension growth and therefore annual allowance positions across the seven years of the McCloud remedy known as the ‘remedy period’. Repayments might be necessary in either direction – with interest added if you
are entitled to a rebate. There are different tax treatments for repayments, depending on the year in question.
We have been advised that corrected statements should be received by the end of December and missing statements by the end of February. The figures are not required for 2023/24 tax submissions in January. The revised figures for previous tax years should be submitted to HMRC within three months of receiving the pension statement.
If you have received your statement, please do liaise with your adviser as soon as possible.
NHS Cost Claim Back Scheme
A reminder that there is also the opportunity to apply to recover some of your costs of using professional advisers to deal with McCloud.
You may be able to claim up to £500 including VAT for adviser fees. Further details of the scheme and the application process can be found here https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/public-servicepensions-remedy-mccloud/nhs-cost-claim-back-scheme
We are delighted to share that we have moved offices – just a short distance away. Our new office address is: 33 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0PW
+ Comment: Paul Hart, director
One of the biggest changes announced by the chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Autumn Budget was bringing personal pensions into inheritance tax from April 2027. This is likely to have a significant impact on the way you may plan for your retirement.
Currently it is possible for pensions to pass to beneficiaries outside of the estate. This means wealthier individuals would often choose to exhaust other income sources in retirement in order to leave their private pensions to the next generation. Now the rules have changed, it is likely to be more beneficial to tap into private pensions in your lifetime.
At present, if you die before 75, your beneficiaries can inherit your pension tax-free. If you die after 75, your beneficiaries would pay income tax (at their marginal income tax rates) on the pensions that they inherit.
From April 2027, if you die before 75, your beneficiaries will inherit pensions after IHT has been deducted, and after 75, IHT could be deducted from the pension plus income tax could be payable on the remaining sum.
IHT is currently charged at 40 per cent on estates valued above £325,000 but this threshold is due to be frozen until 2030 –nearly 22 years after it was first set.
Fortunately, the key exemption for married couples and civil partners will still exist. Spouses can still inherit assets such as private pensions free from IHT.
A consultation is currently underway – due to complete at the end of January – to establish how this will work in practice. We will of course continue to update on this matter and should you have any concerns, please do speak with your adviser.
+ Financial education for the next generation
Earlier this year, we asked clients what else we could do to help. After all, we were set up to support you when navigating tricky financial matters.
Several clients believed that their adult offspring could do with some help from us too – learning some of the fundamental points of savings, pensions and investments. We have therefore created a series of financial webinars especially aimed at helping your adult offspring to get to know more about the key issues to address now, the things which might impact their finances going forward and the matters to consider for their future.
We have called these presentations the Financial Education Series. Our first episode, hosted by adviser team member Oliver Prichard, discusses why investing is a powerful tool for reaching financial goals and the benefits of beginning their investment
journey as early as possible.
To watch the webinars, simply visit this page on our website www.medicalfamilyfinance.co.uk/financial-education-series and you or your loved ones can sign up to the series mailing list.
We will be adding more topics shortly but please do let us know if there is a subject which you or your children would like us to cover.
It can also be useful for us to be introduced to your loved ones in our review meetings, whether online or in person. We have been told by clients that their family members have appreciated knowing there is a friendly face at MFF should they need our help in the future or have financial queries now. Please do speak with your adviser if you would find it helpful for us to say hello.
+ Financial education for your colleagues
A client recently asked us to present a webinar to their colleagues who were confused about the next steps to take with the McCloud remedy.
We are delighted to offer this service and can deliver an online webinar or in-person seminar for your Trust or practice colleagues on many different personal finance subjects.
Doctors have witnessed countless changes to the pension and
taxation regulations in recent years and knowing where to start with the important issues can seem daunting. We have recently hosted webinars on making the most of the new retirement flexibilities and pension funding following inheritance tax changes.
Please let your adviser know if you would like us to arrange a presentation – we can liaise with your Trust directly about the arrangements if it is easier.
+ Interview with Guy Leschziner
Professor Guy Leschziner is a consultant neurologist within the Department of Neurology and Sleep Disorders Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, and at London Bridge Hospital, the Cromwell Hospital, and One Welbeck, He is also Professor of Neurology and Sleep Medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London.
Guy has recently published his third book, Seven Deadly Sins: the Biology of Being Human.
When did you decide on a career in neurology?
I was always very interested in neurology from a very early age, even at school. It's the fascination of how this lump of fatty tissue can influence how we think, what we experience, how we move and the decisions that we make. It is an object of fascination for every neurologist and psychiatrist.
How did you make the leap to being an author?
My first book, The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience and the Secret World of Sleep, was published in 2019. I had presented a radio series for Radio 4 a few years before and then out of the blue, an agent phoned and asked if I had ever thought about writing. I explained that was the last thing on my mind because it sounded like it would be incredibly time-consuming and I'd never had any desire to write. He suggested I used some time off over Christmas to write a chapter and I did. And then another and so on. Somehow, that materialised into a book.
There are many aspects of neurology and neuroscience that are fascinating – how we sleep was one of the first things but also how we experience reality and the world, and how we interact with other people. This latest book is a natural progression of that.
What is the hardest part of writing a book?
I've been very lucky because getting a publisher has always been fairly straightforward. The things that sit most uneasily with most of us doctors is writing for non-medics and the idea of self-promotion.
When we as doctors write generally (not for the public), all our writing is as anonymous as possible. We anonymise our patients and we remove any hint of a personal touch from the papers that we write. For example, in medical literature, the writing is rather formulaic and completely dispassionate. The transformation of that style of writing to something like these kinds of books is difficult. You are trying to make it much more personal to the individual that you're describing and also personal to you.
And as doctors we tend not to be particularly enamored with selfpromotion. Doing this sort of PR sits a bit uncomfortably.
How have you been able to make this book personable?
If you are describing your patients and they are not involved in the project, then that potentially changes the nature of your relationship with them. Or you can take the view that you will not compromise the patient to such an extent that there is very little reality left in what you are describing.
My view has always been to work with the individuals that I've included in my books to let them have a role in the crafting of how they are presented, because then you don't need to anonymise. I think you get a much more realistic presentation of the person, the condition and how it affects them and I’ve been able to do this in all my books.
The characters described are real individuals who agreed to participate and they reviewed what I had written. There are one or two things that I have anonymised at their request but largely, there is very little changed information within the book.
What new elements does the book focus on?
We've long understood that changes in our behaviour, as with any other aspect of what makes us human, can relate to changes within our brains. That's been understood for over a century. I try to extend that into non-diseased brains, so into the brains of all of us and explore rare individuals in whom something very clearly has altered behavior. The book examines what this says about all of us. That changes within our brains or differences in brain structures or brain functions can give rise to different levels of these kinds of behaviours in individuals without neurological diseases.
Can greater understanding have a positive impact, for example in legal cases?
There are rare legal cases whereby a greater understanding of the underlying factors that are outside our individual control can influence what we do and why we do it. A good example is the gene variants that have been used as mitigation for sentencing in murder, for example. The whole basis of this book, the Seven Deadly Sins, is to look at factors for all of us that are outside our individual control, that influence why we do what we do. Does that negate the need for a legal system for punishment, for ensuring the safety of society? Absolutely not. The two can sit squarely together.
Is the field ever changing?
If I think about the changes that have happened in clinical neurology since I was at medical school, it is incredible. There are entirely new conditions that have been identified, new treatments, new explanations for symptoms. In a way that's the joy of neurology – you never kind of think you know it. You're never going to be bored because there'll always be something new to learn.
I don’t have a career end goal in mind, I’m happy to go with the flow. What I love is the balance between clinical work, seeing patients, doing academic research and writing too. It's the variation in working life that I find most stimulating.
And are you a disciplined writer?
I think this book took me about a year. I'm not somebody who can sit down for eight hours a day and write and so I was writing mainly in the evenings or weekends. I was lucky in that for this book, I had some time off from the NHS which I didn’t have with
the first two. Ultimately the book stems from fascination and when you are doing the research and putting it down on paper, that's a very stimulating activity in itself – plus it's a good distraction from the challenges of the NHS.
Are you always thinking about your next book?
Starting to think about it possibly. It's a bit like asking a woman immediately after she's given birth whether or not she's planning on another baby. I’m waiting for the pain to subside and taking some time off, but yes, I'm potentially thinking about something.
Seven Deadly Sins: the Biology of Being Human by Guy Leschziner is published by HarperCollins.
+ Mortgage Update: stamp duty changes
At the end of March 2025, stamp duty rates will revert to previous higher levels.
In September 2022, the government reduced stamp duty thresholds to regenerate the housing market. These thresholds will now go back to their former levels for any house purchases which complete after 1 April 2025. The nil rate threshold at £250,000 will be halved to £125,000. A £500,000 property which completes
Thank you for thinking of us
Congratulations to Dr Nicola Rosenfelder who has won a Montblanc Meisterstück Classique pen in our referral prize draw. We are always grateful for the many recommendations that help us to support more people. For every referral that contacts us, you will receive an entry into our quarterly prize draw.
before 31st March 2025 would incur stamp duty at £3,750. After 1st April, this would rise to £10,000.
The nil rate threshold for first time buyers, now at £425,000, will return to the previous level of £300,000. First-time buyers’ relief which can be claimed on initial house purchases up to £625,000 will be limited to £500,000 from April.
We work closely with the team at Charterhouse Mortgages & Protection and as valued clients of Medical Family Finance, they are pleased to offer you and your family members a 50 per cent discount on their standard mortgage advice fees.
To ensure the discount is applied, please mention the offer when getting in touch. Beulah Antonin at Charterhouse can be contacted on beulah@chmap.co.uk or 020 3838 1101.
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