Ill health retirements - a reminder

An ill-health retirement allows a member to retire before their normal pension age due to ill health. You as the employer must firstly decide whether the member meets the rules for an ill-health pension before they can go down the ill-health retirement process. 

If granted an ill-health pension, the member may be able to take immediate payment of their benefits, no matter their age (as long as they're below normal pension age), if they're dismissed because of ill-health. To get an ill-health pension the member must have been in the scheme for two years and you the employer decides (after receiving an opinion from an independent registered medical practitioner) that: 

• The member is, because of ill-health or infirmity of mind or body, permanently incapable of discharging efficiently the duties of the employment they were engaged in, and;
• The member, because of ill-health or infirmity of mind or body, is not immediately capable of undertaking any gainful employment.

We would like to remind our employers that if the member has reached, or is over normal pension age, the ill-health retirement process isn't needed as the member can already take their benefits unreduced.