Possibility of ill health retirement - Local Auhtority

[Goldfoot]

Friend has been off sick for nearly 6.months following an assault by a service user at work. These assaults aren't common in her line of work, but she is dealing with young people in crisis, so they do happen from time to time. This was particularly nasty though and has damaged her confidence and left her anxious and depressed and scared to go back. Meantime, she has continued her life outside work as usual, holidays, DIY, socialising etc. It obviously has had a grave impact on her, but it hasn't left her unable to function iywim

The employer has led her to believe she might get ill health retirement and arranged an OH referral to pursue this. Its not for a few weeks though. Meantime her full sick pay entitlement is about to come to an end.

So, I think it's entirely likely that an assessor could say she's not fit to return to to the current role in the foreseeable, but it seems unlikely they'll say she's not fit for any work.

Does anyone know what the likely outcome is in terms of her pension? I'm concerned that she's "decided" she'll be retiring on a full pension and she seems to think that will happen in a matter of weeks, before her sick pay ends. Is that at all realistic?

there are various tiers for medical retirement in LGPS and it's only Tier 1 that will give you a full pension.

in my experience (HR), it's not easy to get medical retirement, particularly if she's a long way off pension age. To give you an idea, i had an employee who had cancer and the treatment had ravaged their body so couldn't go back to their normal physically demanding job. they were 55+ and the medical assessment concluded that they could do office work.

ultimately, i'll health retirement relies on medical advice and the OH doctor is accountable for their decision so they will do a thorough assessment.

What often takes time is if the OH Dr had to obtain medical records. if your friend has copies of her reports, she could send them to OH and this may keep things moving.

I would not expect a decision to be made on this for several more months and until she's had therapy for PTSD and treatment for anxiety and depression. Only then will the employers OH have the full picture of her health going forward.

With many major pension schemes there are 2 levels of ill health retirement. 1) Being unable to return to your own job
2) Being unable to do any job permanently (and that's when people get the enhanced pension right away)

A person has to have serious illness/severe disability to get the latter. Usually have to jump through hoops to get it as it costs the pension fund dearly. The people I've known get it have very serious life shortening conditions
Doesn't sound like she's got a hope of getting the latter.

They could say she's fit to go back on a phased return, recommend redeployment to a different area, or agree ill health retirement. Early retirement is never guaranteed because they are effectively saying that she'll never be fit to work again. Age can sometimes influence their decision. You can access the pension scheme at 55 with reduced benefits so if she's approaching or over 55 they may be more inclined to say yes because they take less of a financial hit it they approve it.
Is your friend also pursuing compensation for any physical or psychological damage?

She's just turned 55, sorry, I should have mentioned that.

I had a heart attack mid 50s, was very weak, unable to do full time work and could never see myself returning. I applied for retirement on ill health grounds. Was refused as I was theoretically able to do "some" work and as I was unable to do reduced hours for long term, was encouraged to leave and take early retirement with actuarially reduced pension. No choice really.

Would say she has little to no chance.

I'd say it's still only a small chance and not to get her hopes up. If she's had nearly 6 months full sick pay they'll probably want to see if she makes any progress in the next few months before making any decision. She may still be in this position when sick pay runs out and she goes on to ssp. I've known people who go down to ssp once sick pay is exhausted and are managed out using normal sickness procedures.
From what you say though she does appear fit for work just not her substantive role so redeployment could be an option they look at first. Matching can take a long time depending on what vacancies are available. They can also offer training to help redeployment.

I agree with the others here - it is highly unlikley that she would be allowed to retire with a full pension unless she was totally incapable of doing any work. That is clearly not the case. Also, it would be quite unusual, even if she qualified for a reduced pension (and both options would probably cease if she ever returned to any work) to be able to draw it down until after all sick pay had run out. It definitely won't be decided within weeks. The last one I dealt with took seven months from start to finish, and that was very definitely someone who wouldn't return to any form of work or be fit for any form of work.