GP Earnings and Expenses Estimates 2017/18

• Between 2016/17 and 2017/18, income before tax, total expenses and consequently, gross earnings increased for both GMS and PMS GPs. GPMS income before tax increased by around £3,600 from 2016/17
   
• PMS income before tax is £7,400 higher than GMS. PMS income before tax estimates have been higher than GMS every year since 2002/03. However, except for 2015/16 to 2016/17 when the gap increased, the difference between the two has been narrowing each year since 2008/09, when the disparity was £17,100
   
• The GPMS expenses to earnings ratio, which represents the proportion of gross earnings taken up by total expenses, increased by 0.8 percentage points between 2016/17 and 2017/18, from 65.8 per cent to 66.6 per cent
   
• Expenses have been increasing at a faster rate than income before tax for GPMS contractor GPs in the UK since 2005/06, resulting in an expenses to earnings ratio which has grown each year. The 7 per cent increase in total expenses for GPMS contractor GPs between 2016/17 and 2017/18 follows an 8.7 per cent increase in the preceding year
   
• Average PMS contractor expenses were 22.5 per cent higher than those of GMS contractor GPs in 2017/18. This is the smallest percentage difference between the two groups since expenses information by contract type was first published in 2002/03

Table 1.1: GPMS contractor GPs - average earnings and expenses by contract type, UK, 2016/17 and 2017/18

• Income before tax for GPMS dispensing GPs has increased for the fourth year in succession, following decreases every year between 2005/06 and 2013/14. However, when split by contract type only GMS GPs had an increase, with PMS GPs’ income before tax falling by 1.7 per cent between 2016/17 and 2017/18. Expenses and gross earnings also decreased for PMS dispensing GPs, while increasing for their GMS counterparts

Table 1.2: GPMS dispensing GPs - average earnings and expenses by contract type, UK, 2016/17 and 2017/18

• The average income before tax for GPMS non-dispensing GPs has increased for a second year in succession, showing a 3.7 per cent improvement regardless of contract type
   
• Average total expenses increased by a lower rate than in the previous year for both GMS and PMS non-dispensing contractor GPs

Table 1.3: GPMS non-dispensing GPs - average earnings and expenses by contract type, UK, 2016/17 and 2017/18

• The median figures are all lower than the mean figures in Table 1.1, with the GPMS median income before tax being 5.2 per cent lower than the mean of £109,100. The lower median values indicate that there is a small proportion of high earning GPs increasing the mean income before tax figure.

Table 1.4: GPMS contractor GPs - median earnings and expenses by contract type, UK, 2016/17 and 2017/18

• Total expenses for GPMS GPs were 7 per cent higher than in 2016/17, as shown in Table 1.1. All expenses categories increased between 2016/17 and 2017/18 for GPMS contractor GPs, except ‘Car and Travel’ and ‘Net Capital Allowances’, which dropped by 6.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. This contrasts with the change between the previous two years, when only ’Interest’ expenses showed a decrease. The largest percentage change was for ‘Employee’ expenses – already the largest expenses category - which increased by 8.7 per cent to £132,300.
   
• Total expenses for PMS GPs were 22.5 per cent higher than the total expenses for GMS GPs, although this gap has narrowed since 2016/17, when the difference was 27 per cent. PMS GPs have higher expenses than GMS GPs in all categories except ‘Car and Travel’ and ‘Other’.

Table 1.5: GPMS contractor GPs - expenses breakdown by contract type, UK, 2017/18

• The average expenses in the ‘Other’ category for dispensing GPs are more than four times the size of those of non-dispensing doctors. This is the largest variation in expenses categories between the two dispensing types and is to be expected as this category includes the costs for drugs. Largely because of this difference in ‘Other’ expenses, total expenses for dispensing GPs are almost one and a half times the size of those of non-dispensing GPs

Table 1.6: GPMS contractor GPs - expenses breakdown by dispensing status, UK, 2017/18

Further expenses breakdowns are published in the Excel Annex 1, available under Resources on the Overview page.

• Income before tax, total expenses and gross earnings all increased for GPMS salaried GPs between 2016/17 and 2017/18
   
• PMS income before tax was 4.1 per cent higher than GMS income before tax in 2017/18, with both groups showing increases since 2016/17. The total expenses of PMS GPs increased by 8.9 per cent, following a 34.3 per cent increase between 2015/16 and 2016/17, while the 12.1 per cent increase in GMS GPs’ expenses followed decreases in the previous two years

Table 1.7: GPMS salaried GPs - average earnings and expenses by contract type, UK, 2016/17 and 2017/18

• Within the sample of 5,900 salaried GPs that HMRC matched to their Self Assessment tax returns, 62.1 per cent had only employment income and 37.9 per cent had a combination of employment income and self-employment income. The percentage of GPs who had employment income only has increased every year since 2012/13, when it was 48.5 per cent

The median figures are all lower than the mean figures in Table 1.7. For GPMS GPs, the median income before tax is 7.5 per cent lower than the mean and the median total expenses is 59.2 per cent lower than the mean. The higher mean values indicate that there is a relatively small number of high earning salaried GPs increasing the mean figures.

Table 1.8: GPMS salaried GPs - median earnings and expenses by contract type, UK, 2016/17 and 2017/18

• In 2015/16, PMS GPs’ income before tax fell below that of GMS GPs for the first time since the time series began in 2006/07. Although the gap between the contract types reduced from £600 in 2015/16 to just £300 in 2016/17, it has grown in 2017/18 to £900. For GPMS GPs overall, income before tax increased by 2.5 per cent.
   
• The figures for combined GPMS GPs have shown an increase in total expenses every year since 2006/07.

Table 1.9: GPMS combined GPs - average earnings and expenses by contract type, UK, 2016/17 and 2017/18

• Median income before tax estimates for combined GPMS GPs are all lower than the mean averages, indicating that there is a small proportion of high earning GPs increasing the mean income before tax figure.

Table 1.10: GPMS combined GPs - median income before tax by contract type, UK, 2016/17 and 2017/18