DEPARTMENT of Health chiefs in Northern Ireland are to remain in "close contact" with their NHS counterparts over new proposals to resolve a row with doctors over pension tax.
The British government yesterday said it planned to intervene in England and Wales after doctors said they were refusing to do extra shifts or overtime for fear of having to pay more tax.
Changes to pension tax rules introduced in 2016 meant doctors earning £110,000 a year faced larger tax bills for their pensions.
When asked if the new proposals would be extended to the north's medics, a department spokeswoman said: "Taxation - including pension taxation - is a reserved matter and decisions on tax relief on pension contributions are taken by the Treasury.
"Department of Health officials remain in close contact with counterparts in England and Wales on this issue."
The British Medical Association (BMA) yesterday welcomed the Westminster announcement, which comes a week after a survey found that many doctors in the north were already cutting working hours or intending to take early retirement due to the "unexpected" tax bills for taking on additional work.
Dr Anne Carson, chair of BMA NI consultants committee, said: "Although the details on how these changes will affect senior doctors in Northern Ireland have yet to be confirmed, we nonetheless welcome this announcement as first step in the right direction for a medical workforce that is already stretched to the limit.
"As our recent survey showed, many local senior doctors are already taking steps to mitigate against these unfair punitive tax bills for taking on additional work, such as covering for colleagues, covering maternity leave, taking on management work or waiting list initiatives.
"We are glad to see from the announcement from Westminster that 50:50 model – whereby doctors and employers halve what they put into their pension pots – is not the solution. The new proposed flexibilities will provide short-term relief for many doctors, but they themselves do not tackle the core and underlying problem. This lies in tax reform, and as we have said before, it is the overhaul of the annual allowance and scrapping of the tapered annual allowance that will make a difference to all doctors, including consultants and GPs."
"Senior doctors are committed to addressing the issues around escalating waiting lists and transformation of the health service in Northern Ireland, but due to the way the current tax system is set up it essentially means that they would be doing that additional work for free and, in some cases, paying to do it."
