Ill-health retirement – tier 3 review

What's a tier 3 pension

An employee will be getting a tier 3 pension if you've decided they're likely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment within three years of leaving their employment, or before their normal pension age, if earlier.

The benefit is temporary and should only be paid for three years.

Tier 3 review

You must review a tier 3 ill-health retirement at 18 months. 

If gainful employment has been found, payments should stop. It's the member’s responsibility to let you know if they've found gainful employment before this point. We should be told as soon as possible so that we can stop payment.

Gainful employment means any paid employment for not less than 30 hours in each week, for a period of not less than 12 months.

If gainful employment hasn’t been found, you've two options:

• You can continue paying the benefits for the remainder of the three years
• You can look at the case again if you receive new medical evidence. In this situation, you'll need to get another opinion from an IRMP

You should use an approved IRMP from our list, but it can be the same one who provided the original certificate.

You can award the member tier 2 benefits if you feel they're unlikely to be capable of undertaking any gainful employment within three years of leaving the employment. But, it's likely they'll be able to undertake gainful employment before reaching their normal pension age.