Ill health retirement
The Scheme offers protection to members who become too ill to work.
If you have to leave work at any age due to an illness which means you cannot carry out your current job you may be able to have your pension paid immediately as long as you meet certain conditions.
What might my benefits be?
You may get your pension and any lump sum without any early retirement reductions, based on your current membership plus an enhancement as shown below.
How much enhancement depends on how likely you are to be able to carry out gainful employment in the future.
The different levels of benefit are:
- Tier 1 - Unlikely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment before reaching normal pension age
- Tier 2 - Not entitled to a Tier 1 benefit but is likely to be able to undertake gainful employment before reaching normal pension age
Example
If you reduced your hours due to your ill health immediately prior to your ill health retirement your enhancement can be based on your situation before the reduction of hours.
Tier 1 - Unlikely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment before normal pension age
Your pension will be based on your current membership plus an enhancement to replace what you would have built up to your normal pension age, if you had stayed in the Scheme until then.
Tier 2 - Not entitled to a Tier 1 benefit but is likely to be able to undertake gainful employment before reaching normal pension age.
Your pension will be based on your current membership plus 25% of the enhancement to replace what you would have built up to your normal pension age, as if you had stayed in the Scheme until then.