A Levy is a payment to your Local Dental Committee (LDC), which is collected by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) Dental Services. Levies are statutory for GDS contracts and voluntary for PDS contracts, performers on a GDS contract can also pay additional voluntary levy if they wish.
The payment is based on the gross contract value and includes any Foundation Dentists (FDs) salary and ERNIC plus the Vocational Trainers grant. Levy payments are always taken by NHS Dental Services at contract level in line with the Statement of Financial Entitlement (SFE). Dental Services take a deduction from the contract payment and paying the totals over to the LDCs on a monthly basis.
Deductions are attributed across all performers because the National Health Service Act 2006 section 113 states that "a committee recognised under this section must apportion the amount determined by it under subsection (9)(b) among the persons of whom it is representative under subsection (1)(b); and each such person must pay in accordance with the committee's directions the amount so apportioned to him".
More information on levies can be found on the British Dental Association (BDA) website
August 2020
Until August 2020 deductions were taken at Health Body Level so the type of levy to be deducted would be applied to all contracts within a Health Body.
August 2020 Update
There are now 89 LDCs in England and only 42 Integrated Care Board (ICB). As a result of this LDCs within an area have joined together to agree how they wanted their levy deducted and nominated one LDC to receive the payment.
Compass will now feature a new field on the general page of the contract to indicate which LDC it is associated with. This change will allow each LDC to decide how they want to collect their levy and have the money paid directly to their bank account.
Types of levy
Statutory levy
This applies to all GDS contracts and can be administered through Compass.
There are 3 options for collecting the levy:
- percentage levy - Set percentage of the contract value. This is apportioned against performers’ gross pay for providers’ information
- fixed levy – Set amount per performer on the contract
- overall levy – Set amount to be collected for the LDC, such as £5000 collected which is apportioned across all GDS contracts. An apportionment is made against performers’ gross pay for providers’ information.
Voluntary levy
This applies to GDS contracts or Performers that choose to contribute in addition to their statutory levy and to PDS contracts or Performers who wish to contribute to the LDC. These can be recorded against a contract or a specific performer and there are 2 options for each:
Contract level
- percentage levy - Set percentage of contract monthly pay
- fixed levy – Set amount per contract.
Performer level
- percentage levy – Set percentage of a performer’s gross pay
- fixed levy – Set amount for a performer.
With effect from August 2020 all LDC Levies will be admin.