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Thanks for looking at the NASGP Blog. With over 100 postings and links to both the NASGP website and a host of other websites relevant to Salaried GPs and GP Locums, this is by far the largest resource for Sessional GPs anywhere on the internet. If you like what you see, we’d love you to join, and you can do this very simply for only £8, and remain a member for as long as you like.
It won’t have escaped your attention that the BMA membership has voted to take industrial action on the 21st June 2012. Most BMA members were balloted, but if you’re a BMA member and are listed as a self-employed freelance locum GP, you won’t have been asked to take part on the basis that the action is between an employee and an employer. And by definition, GP locums are not usually employed.
So where does this leave locums on the 21st June? Now that the results of the ballot have been announced, we’ve asked for legal advice from our colleagues at the MPU-Unite and will post their advice here for you. Until then, please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments here on this latest news.
The only certainties in life, said Benjamin Franklin, are death and taxes. As GPs we see the infirmities and indignities of old age, but we probably suppress the knowledge that in time we will be similarly afflicted. Yet we may well live a quarter century or more after retirement. Old age encroaches slowly but it always comes as a surprise. And no-one can look back on old age. So we don’t have a guidebook to help us through it. Planning your exit strategy is even less fun than planning your pension, but it’s just as important. read more »
In recent years the Revenue have updated their computer systems and are able to tie up payroll returns to individual taxpayers much better. We’ve seen a large number of doctors in recent months who have not been required to complete tax returns, but who have received notifications of, usually, underpayments for past years which have come as a complete shock to them. read more »
Dear Career Mentor
I am attracting so many heartsink patients I feel utterly drained. It feels like my only option is to change career, but I don’t know where to start. Please advise me. read more »
NASGP has been campaigning for 15 years to enable sessional GPs to become more involved in the structures and processes of the NHS across the UK. The recent changes to the NHS in England have started the ball rolling and help to set the scene for other UK countries to follow.
The number of GPs in your area working as sessional GPs will account for up to half the workforce, with the number of locums being nearly double the number of salaried GPs. With GP commissioning now an incontrovertible reality, it’s time to take a serious look at the role of sessional GPs in clinical commissioning, and their greater involvement in the NHS.
Why would you want to be involved?
- Work closely with other GPs to improve health in your area, allowing you to use purely clinical expertise or wider management and leadership skills.
- Perfect opportunity to ensure that sessional GPs are kept informed of all local clinical developments.
- Gives a fascinating perspective on health needs and resources.
- Challenges and develops leadership skills.
- All part of a portfolio career.
So how should you get started? read more »
Welcome to our 64th edition. Sonja helps us differentiate between heartsink jobs and heartsink patients; Catherine explains what the RMBF does; Lucy’s still in there with the rat poison; Judith helps us to slow down the clocks; Liz makes sure your next tax bill won’t be exciting; Charlotte wants us to keep our eyes peeled; we’ve got some advice on how to get involved with CCGs, plus a roundup of what’s happening across the UK in Sessional GP groups.
It’s a while since I’ve written about National Insurance and, with rates and contribution ceilings increasing over the years, this is an expensive additional tax, so more than ever you don’t want to be paying more than you need.
There are 4 classes of National Insurance contributions:
So a doctor with a salaried appointment and some freelance work could be paying Classes 1, 2, and 4.
For 2011-12:
The rates for Class 1 (just for the employee, and assuming a member of the NHS pension scheme) are:
Class 2 contributions are £2.50 per week
Class 4 contributions are:
For example:
A locum GP earning net self employed income of £70,000 would pay:
That’s nearly £4,000 of contributions which earn you very little by way of benefits other than a basic state pension – it’s really just another tax.
To make it worse, if you have both employment earnings and self employed earnings you are likely to pay too much National Insurance – but unless you ask for it back, no-one is likely to offer you a refund (although, to be fair, the Revenue have been picking up overpayments where there are multiple employments in recent years). We’ve found that even otherwise excellent accountants can miss this, unless they specialise in doctors and come across it regularly. We recently obtained a refund of over £11,000 in overpaid National Insurance contributions for a new doctor client.
Where you know before submitting your tax return that you are likely to pay over the limit, then you can ask to defer the Class 4 NIC and pay this separately after your return has been completed and when you know what the maximum will be.
Similarly, if you have two employments and risk overpaying, you can apply to defer contributions on one of them.
This will also apply to doctors in their first year of self employment – where they are employed for the first half of the year and then self employed for the second half – so it is something always to consider on your first tax return, if not before.
There is no time limit for claiming back overpaid National Insurance where you had two jobs or where you had both employment and self employment – so even if it’s a long time ago, provided you can find proof of your income and contributions paid, it is well worth revisiting and making a claim.
Liz Densley is medical specialist partner with Sussex Chartered Accountants, Honey Barrett, and is secretary of AISMA (the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants). Contact her at liz.densley@honeybarrett.co.uk.
You don’t need scales and height-weight charts to realise that people are fatter than they used to be. It’s clear that obesity is already damaging patients, and that in years to come it will take a huge toll on the nation’s health.
As GPs we have always tackled our patients’ obesity. Now we are going to be commissioning. What obesity services should we commission? read more »
