Business Services Organisation
Please note this newsletter is provided to practice managers, payroll admins and finance managers responsible for administering the HSC Pension Scheme rules to the Officers within GP practices/federations.
It is intended to advise and remind employers of procedures for this process and should not be given to the staff themselves.
This newsletter contains information about:
- Annual Benefit Statements for Officers (ABS26)
- Keeping HSC Pension Service Updated
- Direct Debit Mandates
- Pensionable Pay & Contributions
- GP1 Submission
- Contacting Us
- Focus On T55a—Termination of pensionable employment
- GP Officer Admin Workshops
- Funding Queries
- Contact Us
This information is available in a downloadable/printable format here.
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Annual Benefit Statements for Officers (ABS26)
Annual Benefit Statements (ABS) have been available on the Engage platform since 31 August 2026. Where the required information was received from employers by the designated deadline, an ABS should have been generated and made available to the member.
HSC Pensions can only generate an ABS2026 where a correctly completed GP55a has been received and processed within the required timescales. Where member data has not been received, or where a query was raised and an adequate response was not provided, an ABS2026 will not be available.
Any members who contact HSC Pensions regarding the absence of an ABS2026 and outstanding information is identified, will be directed to their employer in the first instance, as the statement cannot be produced until the information has been submitted and successfully processed.
Accessing Engage
All staff are encouraged to register for the Engage platform. However, when registering, generic email addresses such as practicemanager@, practicenurse@, reception@, or other shared mailbox accounts should not be used. This is to ensure that each account is linked to a unique email address and to prevent duplication or overlap of user registrations.
Please note that members who contact the HSC Pension Service requesting a printed ABS2026 because they are unable to access Engage will be referred back to their employer for assistance in gaining access to the platform.
If members experience difficulties registering for or accessing Engage, they should email MSSqueries@hscni.net with details of the issue encountered. Where possible, this should include a screenshot of any error message received to assist with troubleshooting and resolution.
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Keeping HSC Pension Service Updated
Employers are required to update HSC Pensions of any changes to members personal information as and when they happen. This includes personal addresses.
The GP55a submission allows for a yearly update of all members addresses, however this should be conveyed to HSC pensions as soon as the member moves address to avoid any breaches of GDPR.
Please email HSC Pensions details of members new address as soon as they move—ensure that only one members address is updated per email sent.
Primary Contacts for employers
HSC Pensions relies on employers to update the primary contact information as and when it becomes applicable. Simply submitting information from a new address does not instruct our department to change our mailing list.
Should the contact info need changed, please email HSCPensions@hscni.net with the new details as soon as they are known.
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Direct Debit Mandates
Employers who pay contributions via direct debit will have an active mandate between HSC Pensions and their bank.
Employers can change their direct debit via their bank if they are switching their account, or they can send a new Direct Debit Mandate to HSC pensions.
If you send a new DD Mandate, you MUST send it with at least 20 days notice before your next expected Direct debit.
You must also send the mandate as a Hard Copy in the mail, as we must amend and forward directly to the bank.
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Pensionable Pay & Contributions
Can you please ensure persons responsible for the Employers payroll are fully aware of rules governing pensionable pay and contributions. Extensive information can be found at:
Section 5: Pensionable Pay and Contributions – HSC Pension Service (hscni.net).
Any contributions not paid due to payroll errors may be subjected to interest.
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GP1 Submission
The regulatory requirement for payment of contributions is no later than the 19th of the month following the applicable worked month. Your direct debit is therefore processed on the 18th of each month and relates to the previous months GP1.
To allow our team to process the GP1s on time, allowing time for review and queries, the GP1 must be submitted no later than the 6th of each month. Submission beyond this deadline causes extra work for multiple teams within HSC Pension Service, and a number of team in the Department of health.
You must therefore ensure that your GP1 is submitted no later than the 6th of each month. Employers who submit their form late on a consistent basis will soon be contacted to advise of late admin fees that will be applied to their direct debits.
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Contacting Us
Whilst our phone lines are open daily our preferred method of communication is by email. Email queries can be logged to individual member records and any work progressed through the team workflow. This ensures that the work is completed by the appropriate team member and responded to within an acceptable time scale.
A simple general query may be answered quicker than a more complex query, so we respectfully request that you allow us time to reply to your queries before contacting us again.
Please include the NI number or practice identifier code in any communication so that we can access the correct record.
Any queries from your members should be directed to hscpensions@hscni.net and not directly to a specific member of staff.
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Focus On T55a—Termination of pensionable employment
When a member leaves Pensionable employment for any reason, a T55a form is required. Should they leave the employment, opt out or retire, the form is a regulatory requirement from all HSC Employers. It is due regardless of any other concurrent membership or continuation with another employer.
The T55a should be submitted immediately after making the member a leaver on your payroll – delays can and do cause significant issues for members pensions if they are late.
In the Autumn of 2025, a new internal process was developed to identify and correct the pension records of members where no T55a was received. This process involves temporarily ending the pension record with an employer using the year end data, and requesting the missing document, to allow the HSC Pension service to correctly process yearly requirements and to ensure any queries form the member are answered correctly. The process is fully tracked internally.
Starting from November 2026, we will be directing Automated emails to employers for the outstanding T55a requests. These emails will occur at the start of each month, and inform the employer of the following information
- Members name
- Their employer
- The date we believe they have left.
- The date the original request was made and how many days overdue the request is.
Employers will receive 1 email per member, so if you have 5 members effected, you will receive 5 emails per month until the issue is resolved. You should reply to each email with the correct T55a to ensure it is recorded correctly.
We have recently undertaken an exercise to update our mailing list to be as accurate as possible from the emails of we receive on a regular basis. This mailing list is used for this exercise only, If you believe that you are receiving the T55a request emails instead of someone else in your employment, please let us know in writing so that we can update this list.
The normal mailing list will remain unchanged until instructed by the Employer separately.
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GP Officer Admin Workshops
Employer Workshops
The HSC Pension Service GP Admin Team continue to attend workshops organised by local employer groups, practice manager forums etc.
The content we are able to cover for these workshops relates to how the employers process the pension locally (Payroll, GP1, T55a etc.).
Member Workshops
If any members wish to attend a workshop regarding the scheme, please contact our department to arrange. There will be a cost associated with this workshop.
It may be more cost efficient to organise one of these workshops via your local federation, as they can organise more practices to be in attendance.
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Funding Queries
Any queries employers have to funding should be directed to the Strategic planning and performance group (SPPG)
HSC Pensions provide input to SPPG, but they provide the funding. HSC Pensions cannot answer queries regarding funding.
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Contact Us
By writing to us at:-
HSC Pension Service
Orchard House
40 Foyle Street
Derry/Londonderry
BT48 6ATVia e- mail at: – hscpensions@hscni.net
By Telephone: (10.00am to 12.00pm & 2.00pm to 4.00pm – Monday to Thursday; 10.00am to 12.00pm Friday) on 028 71319111
Find us on X – @hscpensions
Find us on Facebook – HSC Pension Service