Seniority claw backs - how will this affect GP practices?

Why is this income not being received by practices for GPs now?

The seniority scheme in England closed to new members on 1st April 2014, and was then phased out over a six-year period, with the last payments made prior to 31st March 2020. The funding was then diverted into the global sum.

What was seniority all about?

Seniority was a payment GP practitioners partners (principles) in England received based on their number of years’ service (reckonable years). GPs could accrue reckonable years as non-practitioner but could only receive the payment once they had been a GP principal for two years, and for the period they remained a partner.

As an example, here is the seniority pay basis for 2017/18

No of reckonable years

0-9	£0.00
10	£62.34
11	£699.08
12	£783.07
13	£876.99
14	£982.81
15	£1,100.54
16	£2,106.49
17	£2,317.47
18	£2,548.96
19	£2,803.59
20	£3,084.01
21	£3,392.21
22	£4,487.46
23	£4,622.38
24	£4,760.61
25	£4,903.47
26	£5,050.95
27	£5,202.41
28	£5,439.84
29	£5,591.96
30	£5,748.71
31	£5,909.42
32	£6,075.43
33	£6,238.79
34	£6,420.01
35	6,599.90
36	£6,784.43
37	£6,974.91
38	£7,170.01
39	£7,370.41
40	£7,577.42
41	£7,789.06
42	£8,231.53
43	£8,231.53
44	£8,462.35
45	£8,699.12
46	£8,942.51
47+	£9,193.17

These levels were for the full entitlement. Under certain circumstances these were abated to 60% or even fully abated to zero.

The payment level was based on the level of superannuable pay which was recorded on the type 1 certificate each year, relative to the national average superannuable pay.

How have the claw backs occurred?

The payment level was based on the prior year level of pensionable pay. Therefore, if in one year the GP earned more but less in the next its possible that they received too much seniority in that second year.

In addition, the thresholds for the national average pensionable pay were initially estimated and then finalised retrospectively some years later. The following figures are relevant for 2017/18.

England

2017/18 Final Seniority Figure = £96,296
2017/18 Interim Seniority Figure = £93,540

At the time the accounts were processed for GPs for the 2017/18 year, if a GP was expected to have pensionable earnings of more than 2/3 of £93,540 (per the 2016/17 certificate) they would have received the full amount of seniority relevant to their reckonable years in the table above. If the GP was expected to have pensionable earnings between £31,180 and £62,360, they would only receive 60% of the entitlement. If the GP was expected to have pensionable earnings less than £31,180, they would be fully abated and wouldn’t receive any seniority. However, they could continue to accrue reckonable years of service.

The above figures were the interim figures, and they were then finalised in May 2021 to £96,296. So, the thresholds for payment or abatement became: £64197 and £32099. This increase could mean that GPs who were previously paid in full could have been overpaid, for example if their pensionable earnings were between £62360 and £64197, leading to a clawback of 40%.

Where the final factor was less than the interim factor, the reverse is true, and GPs may have been underpaid their seniority entitlements resulting in additional payments due to them.

This meant that in many cases provisions for claw backs were brought into practice accounts and for many the partners they related to have since retired. This year the claw backs have started to happen in many practice contract payments.