NHS Business Services Authority Reviews 

I have opted out of pension and filled out paperwork at the end July which was supposed to take 8 weeks to complete. Cloe to the 8 weeks mark deadline I have received a notification that I need to redo my paperwork for a still active "bank" profile in NHS (last time I worked on bank was nearly 2 years prior and according to the rules then should have been cleared from the system after few months of not working on bank.)
So I refiled my paperwork and had to call after additional 8 weeks to find out why I haven't received my money back. I found out I had to now wait another two weeks for my money. I have waited two weeks and had to call again today. Only to find out I may need to wait another two weeks or more, but I couldn't be given any deadline date for it to take place. So it could be 2 weeks or MORE!

I had similar experiences previously as well. In general if there is an error with your pay it will takes months of stressful continuous phone-calls before anything is fixed. In meanwhile you can't just postpone paying your bills and stop eating for few months.

Will not investigate why NHS review site will no longer place negative reviews which is a type of deception.

Absolutely appalling service. They keep making mistakes and just tell me to keep submitting paperwork already submitted. Different departments seem unable to communicate with each other to sort out their own mistakes. This is driving me to reconsider withdrawing my labour from the NHS

I would have rated minus if I could. Beware of NHSBSA. It is a very sick deceitful and incompetent organisation stealing innocent patients money. The NHSBSA are acting ‘wrongfully’ by not providing clear information about ‘exemption’ criteria on their website with purpose to trap innocent eligible patients and take their money illegally. The website clearly advises that "you will need to show your tax credits award notice as evidence of your entitlement" to qualify for help with health costs. My fault was that I followed to the letter what NHSBSA website advised, I checked my entitlement on their "online flowchart" and their "online check if you are eligible for help", both of which confirmed my eligibility. Then, I followed their advice of showing the dentist my tax credits award as an evidence. The result was £100 penalty or challenge the NHSBSA. I thought it was some sort of a mistake, so I sent them again my tax credits award which shows very clearly my entitlement, only to be told we accept only a FULL or AMENDED award. There is absolutely no mention of Full or Amended award on their whole website, not even one time. I checked over and over again. I sent 6 emails explaining to them that their website clearly does not mention any Full or Amended tax award, I sent them multiple proofs from their own website, only to be told over and over again to send them a Full or Amended award or pay a penalty. This is some kind of a joke. None of the emails I received from them acknowledged any of the documents or proofs I have sent them. They don’t appear to employ human beings but rather some sort of robots. They are hiding behind unclear ill-conceived regulations and advices. Their poor advice is costing me £100, but I am not paying I am eligible. I am going to take them to the court for all the emotional, and financial hardship and damage they have caused me while I am eligible. I made screen shots of every single page of their website as proof. I am going to send these along with my tax credits award that shows my eligibility from April 2022 to April 2024 over to ombudsman and to the court. This disgraceful organization hounding sick and vulnerable patients for money should be sued for intentionally threatening innocents who are eligible for help.
the National Audit Office show 1.7 million fines for false claims were overturned in the past five years. The majority were cancelled after it was shown that these patients were in fact eligible to claim.
The overturned fines were worth £188 million in total, and represent 30% of the total number of fines issued. That goes to show that NHSBSA is in fact a scam bag.

Wow, no surprise to see such a low rating for this "service". My experience was with penalties for an expired pre-payment prescription certificate, which I was told was valid when it wasn't. I no longer trust or use it.
Shame because the many other services and schemes deserve a higher score.

I have been dealing with this company since August when my mother received a penalty notice for inadvertently ticking the wrong box following dental treatment, she is 90 and has Alzheimer’s, they didn’t know that. Initially I found them very helpful particularly as I was struggling to send a copy of my mother’s LPA via an I Pad, the man gave me an address to send a hard copy to which today I have been told was the wrong address.
Early on in the discussions I had my Mum present and they talked about the case with me, they accepted her actions and agreed to drop the penalty charge. I was then told I could not pay the outstanding balance until the 13th Sept to allow for the notification period. However after that date when I tried to pay the penalty was still active, Since then I have sent two copies of the LPA. On the 11th Oct I contacted them to enquire if it had been received again recognising they could not discuss my mum’s case. I was told that if I could contact them when in her presence they could discuss the case with me. I did that today (14th) and the lady then told me I could only be given one chance to use the verbal authority. She dismissed the discussion I had had on Tuesday saying there were no such notes on the system. She also told me addresses and e-mail addresses I had previously been given were wrong, she just said refer to the letter even though I explained that people in her team had given me the information. When I said I wished to make a formal complaint she said I couldn’t…until they received the LPA! Having managed a customer service department I appreciate the challenges they face so I remained very polite and calm, what I then found outrageous was when she terminated the call to a feedback service, which I was happy to complete.
There seems no recognition that they have made mistakes or given wrong advice, or that they are dealing with vulnerable people who will become distressed if they receive more penalty notices if this goes beyond another period of 30 days.
The system appears broken and needs proper managerial oversight. I will be making a formal complaint once they eventually contact me

I applied for ill health retirement one year ago, 3 months before leaving. I have been a front line clinician for over 30 years and have life limiting conditions that don't meet the "dead in a year" condition but I will probably be dead in 5 to 7 years, and am disabled.
There is no oversight of the process, only a target to pay within 30 days of having all information. Getting to that point has no time target and they (& the employers) are very lackadaisical in progressing things with me having to make repeated calls, emails and visits to try to move things on. I am now at the stage where my application has been approved and they want more information which could easily have been collected months ago as I finished work in early January, ready to process. A further 3 weeks on, I still haven't received the form to complete.
This is despite my repeated calls, pointing out that I have had no income for 9 months and am now having to borrow money from friends. I have been in tears daily with suicidal thoughts. I paid into my NHS pension in good faith for over 30 years and always tried to help my patients with situations. Now MY money is being withheld from me and I have spent 2022 with a high level of stress and depending on friends to pay my bills. That's the thanks for a working life in the NHS. Nobody seems to care or even affirm that this is an awful situation. I have been to my MP but that has made no difference.

Applied for help with NHS costs - sent all the relevant documents exactly as they requested it to be done. Now a week past the deadline of when they said they would inform me of their decision. No sign of anything so I called the number they give. I just got "on hold music" for 20 minutes and I gave up in the end. Then I read all these reviews, so now I see why!

I received a penalty charge letter that I didn't pay my dental treatment as I claimed I have tax credit exemption certificate which is not true!

I had paid prior my treatment- that was an emergency appointment as I got tooth abscess and I was in agonising pain - and I told them this and I also said I have the proof of payment: my bank statement which I could send but they didn't care!
I received an email from them as well which I have to forward to the dentist (which is impossible as they are not my dentist, only emergency dentist through helpline and noone helps as it is quite far away, I can't even pop in!) and then the dental surgery have to forward that email to them, confirming I paid!
But as they don't help, I am stuck and this penalty service team is absolutely careless and unprofessional. I find it shocking!

I really don't get it how can a service work like this!

Absolutely awful to deal with!!
Trying to get my lump sum pension since May 2022!
It’s a utter joke!
No one can even ring you up and explain what you want to hear.,
I suffer from anxiety and this just heightens it!
Wonder if I will get a reply?

I'm very annoyed, my daughter who an eating disorder and therfore takes various medication for certain deficiencies etc. has had no end of problems with NHS Business Services Authority. All she wants is a pre payment card so that its all covered but no they can't even manage that! They keep confusing her with her twin sister, they can't be the only twins in the UK wanting these cards. I've written to the CEO of the service he assured me it would be sorted but no they still can't get it right. So now I have a daughter who says she won't take her medication because she can't afford to pay without the pre payment card, this is detrimental to her health and is an appalling situation, not to mention very stressful.

Lack of care and compassion for vulnerable people. They just expect payment.
If you unknowingly wronged as it says on the letter they can reverse the fine.
Over the phone the ask there's no way of knowing even though we had proof but they don't want to see it. They can reverse the fines, they're just greedy and don't want to because it's too much work for them clearly. But rest have to work though to pay those fines.
It should say on there that you can get a refund for the fine if eligible. Some people have that kind of money lying around anyway to pay the fine for them to top up on a surcharge when they don't pay on time., even you call and tell them they tell you to call back the next day. NHS does not care for the working class people at all.
Not everyone's fortunate to work a cushy job and make everyone else life seem like hell when they're already struggling.

Just awful. Made me regret joining the NHS nearly 19 months ago. Have a rarely got wages correct. Never apologise. Even just helped themselves from my bank account once. Difficult to get hold of and very rarely will answer any emails. I was even given an email to air my concerns and after 3 months got a reply of, this email is not monitored. Messed up my tax several months in a row this year and left me in arrears. Even our own finance director says they are beyond useless. I work on a site with over 450 employees and everyone of us was paid wrong last week. Yet not a single piece of information has come from SBS. The NHS is a great institution but if you come to work for us, just beware at how bad SBS are. It’s not a case of if they mess up, it’s a when and how often.

As an NHS employees, our pensions go through their services and I can tell you it’s not cute. There is no clear way of contacting them and when you find a way - they’re not making it easy.
You automatically get joined with the new NHS employment and the difficulties start when you try to opt-out.
We're in 2022 and they do not accept any digital forms, as they're more into "wet signatures". That already is an improvement for making us come in person in pre-Covid times.

I joined Universal Credit and was not entitled to free prescriptions until my hours changed and then, months after joining UC I was entitled to free prescriptions. I rang for a refund and was asked why I hadn’t applied for the free prescriptions from the start of my Universal Credit claim. I explained that I’d had more hours then and hadn’t qualified. This actually turned out to be too complicated for the man! He kept asking about change of circs dates, but then kept asking why i hadn’t applied when I made the initial claim. The conversation deteriorated and I ended up telling him off! He was then able to hang up without doing his job. Awful incompetence

Trying to get a travel card for my 18 year old seems impossible. He doesn’t have a loan, Morgage, self assignment tax return, no hospital letter from the past 3 months, no council tax bill and no electric bills. Stupid to ask for that as evidence from an 18 year old

If I could it would be a minus rating.

They are really promoting penalty charge notices with the threat of a £50.00 surcharge, this is all on top of a £123.80 notice they sent. Of course this was challenged but all I got back was an email detailing the above information - These people/company lack empathy, they remind me of that tv programme about bailiffs. What is even more so, is I work for the NHS, I take due care and empathy seriously with every one of my patients, personal circumstances included.
This is embarrassing to say the least, I never thought any part of the NHS could be so greedy.

I would rate it 0 if l could !
Had to pay a penalty which l tried to do on 2 events in receipt of the letter . System was apparently down. Been told to call back on a certain date . In the meantime received another penalty notice with £50 surcharge then stayed on the phone mote than an hour to set up a direct debit with 3 different advisor lost my temper on the 3 rd one who was absolutely not listening my problem. And
…… hung up on me
Total disgrace!!
It make me want to not pay the surcharge as l think this is their mistake.
Horrible
Feel totally down after this experience

Shockingly bad. Daughter applied for global health insurance card months ago. Sent all info to provide ID. Was asked for 2 of the following, none of which she has as they are not applicable to her circumstances (a student living with parents):

utility bills
a Local Authority council tax bill
a council or housing association rent card
a benefit award notice
a letter from HMRC
a mortgage statement
HMRC self-assessment letters or tax demands
a solicitor’s letter, dated within three months of the application date, confirming recent house purchase or land registry confirmation of address

Sent email explaining this and asking what she can provide - 3 months pass until another email asks for the same things.

Given up trying - life's too short!

Truly abysmal.
Late, conflicting & downright wrong information constantly supplied.
On line forms over complicated & lengthy.
'Support' is anything but.
So far, it has taken 7 months to get an estimate! Then you have to apply for the pension; how long will that take to process?