NHS Pension advice-Ill health

[NoEffingWay]

DH has a medical condition which is causing his kidney function to drop to almost dialysis levels.

Does anyone know whether he will be likely to be able to retire for ill health reasons? He's on a bank contract due to ill health, but even these shifts are becoming hard for him to manage.

If he is able to do this, can it be expedited or does it take months to sort out. Frankly, we can't afford to live without his income. He has paid into the pension for almost 30 years at this point.

Ill health retirement does take a fairly long time unfortunately, I think.

I'm also not wholly sure how it works if you're a bank staff member, that would be worth checking with the union or the pension scheme themselves.

Assuming that doesn't cause a problem essentially the are two levels: both require you to evidence that your ill health is permanent/at least through to retirement age. This would be through supporting medical evidence and should generally include occupational health input.

Then the difference between the two levels is that the lower one only requires you to be unable to do your current role whereas the higher one you have to be unable to do any role.

The lower one essentially allows you to take your currently earnt pension but without it being reduced for early retirement. If you've got a good pot this is often all you need.

The higher one is more for if you have a life changing accident or something early in your career - it essentially gives you a proportion of the pension you would have had if you had worked a whole career.

I've been reading about the Scottish one now recently and they allow you to take a reduced pension early in some circumstances while they review your case, but I'm not sure if that applies in England or even the circumstances it applies in in Scotland.

Ultimately his success or otherwise will depend on the willingness of his employer to support him and on his ability to evidence his inability to work and the permanent nature of his illness.

Thank you so much for this information. He's got the OH meeting with the doctor tomorrow. We have a huge file of medical evidence to take with us tomorrow which hopefully will strengthen the claim.

Is he in a union?
Mine were extremely helpful in my ill health retirement process. In my experience his employer may well do their best to wiggle out of their responsibility if at all possible.
Occupational Health can be complicit.
I got to the stage where I was assessed by an independent occupational health consultant and her report secured my pension for me.

What part of the ngs does he work in, is he in a union

He is in unison-I'll get him to call them tomorrow. Naively I was under the assumption that the trust really had no gain from withholding his pension. Daft really, as they were the ones who refused any reasonable adjustments for his life long illnesses and made no concessions over the thirty-odd years he worked for the same NHS Trust.

He's now on the kidney transplant list and will be starting dialysis in the next few weeks. He could 100% work as a nurse right now

Hi OP I have recently retired on medical grounds from the NHS so have some experience. Unfortunately it was a long and stressful process for me but my Union rep was amazing thankfully.
My advice would be to

1. Check contract situation re bank staff
2. Once above is established, check sickness absence policy which should include provision for retiring on medical grounds as part of competency requirements
3. Ensure occupational health support the request to retire on medical grounds (as part of this draw on as much support from Consultants, GP etc to provide evidence)
4. Read and understand the forms that need to be completed by employer, occupational health and employee and go to NHS Pensions for a decision (in my case my HR department evidently didn't understand the forms and made multiple mistakes and left vital information out - this was where having a good union rep saved the day)
5. Be prepared for process to take upwards of 6 months
6. Hang on in there

Good luck! Hopefully you'll have a better experience than me

Had the appointment with the OH Doctor today who basically said she didn't necessarily think there are grounds for medical retirement as in approximately three years time he could have a new kidney and will be 'well enough to work'. She'll put in her report but didn't seem to want to understand that he's been told by the wards he banks on that he can't work there anymore due to his ill health.

It was a bit frustrating and upsetting. She also said that the NHS pension authority won't really care that doing 12.5 hour long shifts was an issue, and that they would say he could be redeployed to other areas.

Nowhere in the trust does short shifts anymore, DH has been a nurse for nearly 30 years and is 6 years away from retirement-are they suggesting he could retrain into A&C or similar after his transplant? He would also have to to do a 'return to practice' as his registration will lapse in the next few years.

The tinkly laugh and 'oh well' made me take a deep breath and remind myself she is onpy doing her job. Kidney failure, as it turns out, is not considered as 'ill enough'. She suggested that he would have been better off to have a 'terminal cancer'. She also said that ill health retirement should not be considered 'insurance'.

That sounds like a very frustrating meeting! Definitely get Union advice. Is your DH off sick? If nothing else, Occ Health should suggest and support reasonable adjustments to support your DH.

IHR isn’t determined by the employer, it’s determined by NHS Pensions.
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2017-05/Ill%20health%20retirement%20tiers%20and%20FAQs%20%2805.2017%29%20V8.pdf

It’s tricky to get and takes a long time. If medical professionals are saying an operation will cure his illness & he may return to work, he won’t get ill health retirement.

@Pedestriancrossing He's off sock but only receiving SSP. Times are tight in the Effing household! He gets PIP and UC but it's not a fun time.

As he's off sick I would look to the sickness absence policy on what options he has - depending on his contract and what stages of the policy have been reached already. I learned that I had to become very familiar with the policies and procedures as sadly the HR people weren't (in my case).

I think it's important to make the formal application as soon as possible, see what the union says. When I applied for my local government pension to be released for ill health it took about 4 months to be approved, and was backdated to the date of my application. Hopefully the union can help you to fight this, good luck.

To update-DH got tier 2 ill health retirement! Transplant in a few weeks and then a long, most likely rocky recovery (all going well), and then the hell that has been the last 18 months can finally be over.

@NoEffingWay bless ya bet that was tough, tough road ahead too, hang in there. Congrats on this bit

Brilliant news! Best wishes to both of you, and to your husband for a good recovery.

Hello.
so I have been looking at your site and I have been advised to ask for your assistance.
im a 46 year old female that was working within the ambulance service from age 41.
i had an extremely position with my work which involved me having complete control over saving many poorly people’s lives on demand.
i was the first port of call for anyone who was in a near death situation and had to try to help as much as I could.
i absolutely loved my job with the nhs.
im still employed but I have not been able to work since June 2021.
we we’re in the throws of the covid pandemic and I started to feel unwell but put it down to working 4-5 12 hour night shifts. We were understaffed and under extreme pressure!
or I thought it maybe the menopause.
I kept saying I felt like I was in a round fish bowl.
I collapsed at work and then conceded to having many absent seizures and I started self harming myself and repeating myself over and over again.
anyway to cut a long story short I have cerebral atrophy.
Also functional neurological disorder.I also now have severe uncontrollable anxiety disorder and depression!?
I worked for the nhs from 2018 until to date as I have refused to resign.

ive been off sick since august 2022.
im a 2015 pension member and in the scheme.
im in the final stages of ill health retirement.
my questions are..
if I am accepted for tier 1 ill health retirement as a 2015 member what would I receive? Also if I am eligible for tier 2 what would I receive for this on my pension ill health retirement.
So confused about all of this

@Lkenny10

So if you were accepted for tier one, you'd receive the equivalent to your pension but you'd receive it now. So likely a limited amount because you'll only have had a couple of year's service. It won't be reduced because you're taking it early, you'll just receive it now.

If you are accepting for tier two your pension is uplifted to half that you would have expected if you had reached normal retirement age. So if you started at 41, the would have assumed you'd work til 67/68. So that's 26 years potential service. So they'd uplift your pension to 13 years potential service. For each year you're in the scheme you receive 1/54th of your salary as the pension. So if you were on £27k that would be £500, or £54k would be £1000. So on the basis of earning £27k, I think you'd receive about £6,500 per year, and then more if you were earning more.

I hope that helps.

Best wishes,

Emily