The MARS has been designed to support the flexibility to address periods of rapid change and service re-design as part of the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust CIP.
The purpose is to create job vacancies which can be filled by redeployment of staff from other jobs or as a suitable alternative for those facing redundancy. The scheme also aims to facilitate organisational change and restructuring where immediate redeployment into the vacated role does not take place, for whatever reason.
Posts vacated by MARS leavers should be ring-fenced and advertised initially to at risk staff.
If the post remains unfilled once an employee has left, there may be a risk that this shows that the business can function without the post and in effect the post is redundant. The MARS must not be used as a "disguised redundancy."
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- MARS is a time–limited scheme under which an individual employee, in agreement with their employer, chooses to leave employment in return for a severance A MARS is not a redundancy1 or a voluntary redundancy, which would currently be covered by Section 16 of the NHS terms and conditions of service handbook.
- The MAR Scheme will launch on Tuesday 13th May 2025 and close on Tuesday 10th June 2025 (i.e. this will be the closing date for any applications).
1The definition of redundancy given by Section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 states:
"... an employee who is dismissed shall be taken to be dismissed by reason of redundancy if the dismissal is attributable wholly or mainly to:
- the fact that his employer has ceased, or intends to cease, to carry on the business for the purposes of which the employee was employed by him, or has ceased, or intends to cease, to carry on that business in the place where the employee was employed or
- the fact that the requirements of that business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or for employees to carry out work of a particular kind in the place where he was so employed, have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish"
- Any application under MARS must demonstrate that the departure of an employee on voluntary terms would be in the financial and operational interests of the organisation.
- The application should be clear about the reasons for offering the MARS payment, ensuring transparency and providing evidence that this is not a "disguised redundancy". The business case should be clear about the necessity for the vacated post to be filled and that it will be ring-fenced and advertised initially to staff at risk.
- Any application to leave under MARS will need to demonstrate:
- why the severance payment is in the public interest;
- why it represents value for money;
- how it represents the best use of public funds
- that it will not affect the organisation’s financial
- To be eligible staff must have a minimum service of 12 months continuous service (continuous service being defined as NHS service with no break of greater than a week) and this excludes bank workers.
- The following groups would not normally be allowed to leave under this scheme:an employee who has already formally given notice of their intention to resign/retire, prior to the date when applications are formally being sought;an employee who has already secured employment with another employer;an employee who has been notified of the date of the termination of their contract of employment for any other reason;an employee undergoing a performance management procedure to address poor performance;an employee undergoing a conduct procedure;employees whose posts have been identified as likely to be redundant and are subject to consultation;employees currently in a selection pool identifying them for potential redundancy;employees in shortage or hard to recruit to posts;employees in posts where delivery of service would be put at risk by their
- Any MARS will be time-limited for the deadline for applications and the latest date for resignations to be effective.
- Each application made in accordance with MARS will be considered on its own merits. The employer reserves the right to determine whether or not an application will be approved and there will be no right of appeal on the part of those employees whose applications are not successful.
- MARS is entirely voluntary from the employer’s and employee’s perspective and there is no legal obligation on the part of the employing organisation to accept any individual application.
- To mitigate against potential discrimination, e.g. fixed-term workers, it is advisable to offer the MARS in principle to everyone in a particular staff group and then consider each application individually on its merits as set against the business criteria. (If there is an intention to renew a fixed-term contract then the employee would need to be made aware of this prior to submitting an application. If the post is not being renewed then redundancy may be the appropriate exit route).
- Leaving dates must be mutually agreed as the risk otherwise is that it could add to any later argument that the resignation was in fact a redundancy. However, the scheme details should make it clear the date by which resignations would be expected to take place.
- It is important to note that because MARS is voluntary, the Trust will not cover additional costs such as termination of lease car agreements or other salary sacrifice penalties.
- Current legislation allows MARS payments to be paid without the deduction of tax and National insurance up to £30,000. Any payment above £30,000 will have tax deducted at the appropriate rate. Where the employee is a higher rate taxpayer, she/he will be responsible to HMRC for any further tax that may be due at the higher rate.
- Employees who leave under MARS would not be re-employed under normal circumstances by the NHS in England, in the same or a different post, before a period of one month has elapsed. If an individual does return to the NHS within one month, they would be required to repay any MARS payment in full.
- Where an employee returns to work for the NHS in England within six months and before the expiry date of the period for which they have been compensated (as measured in equivalent months/part-months’ salary), then they would be required to repay any un-expired element of their compensation. This would be reduced to take account of any appointment to a lower grade post or reduced hours basis and reflect net salary. The settlement agreement should specify the requirement to repay monies in such circumstances.
- An employee who leaves West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust under MARS would not be eligible to be re-employed by West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust within 12 months of leaving.
- As part of the settlement agreement employees will be required to warrant that they had not secured another job in the NHS at the time of leaving.
- Re-employment includes working for the NHS in England via other mechanisms such as bank and agency.
- Employees who decide to proceed with a MAR will be issued with a settlement agreement to sign, which will set out the financial and other terms under which the employment relationship will end.
- Independent legal advice will need to be obtained by the employee before signing the Settlement Agreement. The organisation may contribute up to a maximum of £400.00 inclusive of VAT towards the cost of this legal advice.
- The payment rate under the MARS scheme is fixed at ½ month’s salary for each full year of reckonable service, up to a cap of 12 months’ salary, with a minimum payment of 3 months’ salary for 1-6 years of reckonable service. (Table 1)
- Individual payments will not be greater than £80,000 in respect of any individual. A salary cap of £80,000 will be applied i.e. for staff with total earnings of more than £80k, the figure used for calculating a MAR payment will be £80,000 (pro rata for part time staff).
- No provision will be made for payment of any notice period. Successful applicants will be expected to terminate their employment at an early date to be mutually agreed and within the time frame agreed when the MARS was approved. Notice not worked will not attract payment in lieu of notice.
- If a successful MARS applicant has not worked their notice in full by the leaving date, some or all of the Severance Payment may be taxable as Post Employment Notice Pay in which case we will be required to deduct income tax and National Insurance at the appropriate rate in respect of any Post Employment Notice Pay.
TABLE 1 Note: continuous service is defined as service with no break of greater than a week.Reckonable Service (complete years)Scale of Payment1 year’s continuous service (organisation/NHS)3 months’ basic salary2 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)3 months’ basic salary3 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)3 months’ basic salary4 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)3 months’ basic salary5 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)3 months’ basic salary6 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)3 months’ basic salary7 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)3 ½ months’ basic salary8 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)4 months’ basic salary9 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)4 ½ months’ basic salary10 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)5 months’ basic salary11 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)5 ½ months’ basic salary12 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)6 months’ basic salary13 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)6 ½ months’ basic salary14 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)7 months’ basic salary15 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)7 ½ months’ basic salary16 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)8 months’ basic salary17 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)8 ½ months’ basic salary18 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)9 months’ basic salary19 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)9 ½ months’ basic salary20 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)10 months’ basic salary21 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)10½ months’ basic salary22 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)11 months’ basic salary23 years’ continuous service (organisation/NHS)11½ months’ basic salary24 years’ + continuous service (organisation/NHS)12 months’ basic salary
- Reckonable service means continuous full-time or part-time employment with present or any previous NHS employer where there has been a break of service of 12 months or less, as at the time of leaving. Employment that has been taken into account for the purposes of a previous redundancy or loss of office payment by an NHS employer, will not count as reckonable service.
- For the purpose of MARS, employers have discretion to take into account any period or periods of employment with employers outside the NHS, where these are judged to be relevant to NHS employment and have previously been agreed as reckonable service.
- Any severance payment made will be offset against any subsequent payment made for the purposes of any future calculation of redundancy payments in subsequent employment. This would apply where the period of employment covered by the severance payment is taken into account in calculating the redundancy payment.
- The severance payment would be subject to the employee having not secured another job in the NHS at the time of leaving.
- An employee accepting a MARS severance payment and resigning from the organisation may find alternative employment elsewhere in the NHS subject to the conditions set out in section 5 above. In the event that any future NHS employer intends to make the employee redundant, the employer will be notified via ESR of this provision of MARS.
- The employee’s proposed leaving date will be subject to negotiation and mutual agreement between the employer and employee but must be within the time frame set out at the launch of the scheme.
- Staff whose application under MARS is accepted, and who have reached their ‘normal pensionable retirement age’, will also be eligible to claim their NHS pension benefits. This will not involve the organisation in incurring additional costs related to the payment of pension benefits. For members of the 1995 Section of the NHS Pension Scheme, normal pension age is 60 (55 for members of the ‘special classes’). For members of the 2008 Section of the NHS Pension Scheme, normal pension age is 65.
- Staff whose application under MARS is accepted and who have reached their minimum pension age, may also wish to apply for Voluntary Early Retirement with reduced pension benefits. For members of the 1995 Section of the NHS Pension Scheme, minimum pension age is 50 for most but 55 for some members who first joined or returned on or after 6 April For members of the 2008 Section of the NHS Pension Scheme, minimum pension age is 55.
- Please note that no guarantee can be given about the timing of the payment of such benefits in line with any MARS payments and applications for pension benefits will need to be made in the normal manner by submission of a leaver
- Further information about the NHS Pension Scheme is available at: nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pensions
- Following agreement of the MARS by NHS England, the procedure for applications will involve the following stages:an expression of interest made by an employee after considering the full details (including the content of the settlement agreement).applications will be reviewed by the Trust as part of a 2-stage review, whereby the function/division will make an initial recommendation, and an Executive-level panel will make the final decision.applications from Chief Executives or Executive Directors will need formal approval from NHS England.
- Each application will be considered on its own merits and there will be NO right of appeal on the part of those staff whose applications are unsuccessful. There should be no expectation of entitlement to MARS because an application has been made.
- If the application is to go ahead, the date of exit will be mutually agreed, i.e. not imposed by the employer but should not be later than the latest date for resignations agreed when the scheme was launched.
- Employers must ensure that equality commitments are met and that no employee should receive less favourable treatment on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, or on the grounds of trade union membership.
- Appropriate equality monitoring should be undertaken in line with the employer's relevant policies.
- An equality impact assessment should be undertaken for the final policy.
- When considering applying for voluntary severance under MARS, employees will need to understand the consequences of their decision. A MAR is viewed as being a voluntary resignation on the part of the individual employee, in return for a severance payment. As there may be significant financial and life-style implications for the employee, employers should support the decision- making process by assisting individuals with understanding these
- Some of the implications for employees to consider when resigning would include, for example:the possible loss of entitlements to welfare benefitsmortgage protection insurance policies not covering resignationsany possible impact on pensionslease car penaltiesmulti-post contracts
Colleagues can access information and support from the following:
- NHS Pensions: nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pensionsBenefits website: https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefitsCitizens Advice Bureau: http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/
- Employers are not legally authorised under the Financial Services Act to give pensions or other financial advice to Therefore, employees should be encouraged to seek further independent financial advice. The following websites may be of assistance.IFA Promotion: unbiased.co.ukThe Personal Finance Society: thepfs.org
FAQs regarding MARs are available on the NHS Employers website at Section 20 (NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook) (opens in new tab)