When will the NHS pay rise be paid? The 5% deal and one-off payment explained
Nurses have rejected a 5 per cent pay rise offer and are asking for a double digits rise.
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) voted to reject the deal, despite leaders encouraging them to accept it, and a ballot will be held for further strike action.
All nurses and paramedics in England were due to receive a 5 per cent pay rise and a cash payment for last year.
What was the deal?
The pay deal has been accepted by many paramedics and other non-medical NHS staff in England despite some unions, including the RCN and Unite, rejecting the offer.
There are 14 unions involved in the deal, representing staff on the Agenda for Change contract. This is the current NHS grading and pay system which includes all NHS workers apart from doctors, dentists and senior managers.
For the financial year 2022-23, NHS staff under the Agenda for Change scheme will receive a one-off payment worth 2 per cent of their salary for 2022-23.
They will also get an “NHS backlog bonus” which “recognises the sustained pressure facing the NHS following the pandemic and the extraordinary effort staff have been making to hit backlog recovery targets”.
This bonus will be worth between £1,250 and £1,600 per person, based on an individual’s experience and pay band. The average nurse in pay band 5 would receive £1,350.
For the 2023-24 financial year, NHS workers are being offered a pay rise of 5 per cent.
What has the RCN said?
A postal ballot on new strikes will open on May 23 and close on June 23. The RCN has warned that strikes could go on until Christmas, which would force the cancellation of thousands of patient operations and appointments.
RCN chief, Pat Cullen, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Tens of thousands of my members voted to tell the Government their last offer was not good enough, that’s very clear.
“What was the offer? It was basically a consolidated 9 per cent over a couple of years, and that’s a really important point. And we’re saying to Government, let’s negotiate further and add to it.”
On Monday, Downing Street said some nurses would already receive double-digit pay rises under the deal rejected by RCN members.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “If it is now correct that they are saying their position is that they wish for double digit pay rises over two years, I would gently point out (that) under the deal they voted against, those at the bottom of, or middle of, band five under Agenda for Change, so nurses, would receive 10.7 per cent and 10.3 per cent over two years.”
He added: “I think that illustrates this was a fair and generous offer. It’s the one that the RCN leadership recommended to its members, it was subsequently accepted by the majority of other unions via the NHS staff council.
“It’s important that all unions recognise this collective decision has been made, it should be respected.”
Ms Cullen will use a speech at the RCN’s annual congress in Brighton to say the Government will be forced to act if nurses give the union a fresh mandate for further industrial action.
Ms Cullen will say the NHS and social care system are sailing “dangerously close to the wind” and “nurses are striking because our patients are dying”.
She will say: “In seven days from now, nursing staff in England will receive fresh ballot papers on the question of whether to continue with strike action for up to six more months.
“If you give the college another six-month mandate for strike action, across the whole of England’s NHS, then Government will be forced to act once more.
“Nobody wants to see twice as many nurses take strike action. Or twice as many hospitals affected by a strike.
“Prime Minister, you did the right thing to open negotiations with me in February. Before the 75th birthday of the NHS this July, let’s get this job finished.”
When will the pay rise be paid for other NHS staff?
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had said staff should see the pay in their packets from June.
“We’re working on this at pace as we understand the importance of getting this into pay packets as soon as possible,” the department said.
Unions have called for the Government to issue the pay deal as soon as possible to support struggling health workers.
Unison – representing a range of health staff including paramedics, hospital cleaners and some nurses – accepted the Government’s pay offer but called for the payment to be made by June.
Head of health at the union, Sara Gorton, who chairs the union group on the NHS Staff Council, said: “NHS workers will now want the pay rise they’ve voted to accept. The hope is that the one-off payment and salary increase will be in June’s pay packets.”
However, guidance issued by NHS Employers to NHS trusts in England earlier this month sets out plans to allow the money to be paid in installments.
