I don’t mean morally. That’s a different discussion. MPs voted this week to keep the one per cent public sector pay freeze which has been in place since 2012 resulting in a real-time pay cut for vital NHS staff as salaries fail to keep a pace with inflation. And it would be an easy argument to make that when you consider the pay afforded to the willing volunteers of reality TV shows in comparison to doctors and nurses saving lives, we may have lost the plot somewhere.

I’m actually referring to your pay slip. Are you being paid what you should be?

Part of our job is to conduct ‘rescue missions’ when we take on new clients. They may have had poor advice elsewhere or been advised by a non-medical specialist which means key details of your medical income can be missed. I recently helped a consultant in his 50s and upon checking his pay slip discovered he had been on an incorrect pay increment for the past eight years. He was actually two thresholds lower than he should have been – a fact which had gone unnoticed by his previous advisers.

In correcting this, the happy client is eligible to claim over £75,000 in back pay. To boot, their pension income in retirement will be increased by more than £4K per year, with the capital value of their NHS pension increased by £100K.

We then looked at their pension savings in relation to the strict lifetime allowance limit and the client will save £34,500 in tax liabilities. A great outcome all round.

Please check your pay details carefully – sadly this is not a stand-alone case. The NHS is amazing at many things. Finances aren’t one of them.