Thousands of extra NHS staff have returned to work post-retirement, after a rule change allowed them to take their pensions and then rejoin their generous pension scheme.

NHS staff can leave their roles, start taking their pension, and then go back to work under a scheme known as retire and return.

But even if they returned to work, they could not rejoin the NHS pension scheme until a rule change was implemented in 2023.

In the year immediately after that change was implemented, 18,725 NHS staff used retire and return, according to data supplied by the NHS Business Services Authority.

This is the highest figure on record and compares to just 4,697 in 2020/21.

Figures dipped slightly in 2024/25 to 12,597, but the overall trend still suggests that more NHS staff are open to returning to

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