Ex MG Rover Group and ill-health pension

Jacobscream

I worked for Rover group for twenty years and in 1993 I became ill and could not work so I remained on the books but suspended from the payroll until I was made redundent on reduced terms because I was sick in 2005.

At no time did anybody tell me in 2005 that if I wanted to take ill-health early retirement then it was an option for me at that time.

I have now applied for early retirement and have found that my terms cannot be enhanced because I am no longer employed.

Please can somebody advice? I would have thought at the time of redundency somebody should have informed me of my right to take ill-health early retirement and the consequences of not doing so given I had been off sick for twelve years at that time.

Best wishes,

Ann

sleepless_saver

deleting text as the post to which it referred has been deleted by MSE

Horace

I am confused by this post - I thought the MG Rover Group no longer existed after being dissolved in 2005, I live close to their old works and there is hardly a sign now that any cars were built there.

If your post was made redundant (6000 employees lost their jobs at that time) then it is unlikely that they would have offered you ill health retirement - ill health retirement is perhaps what you should have asked for in the intervening years prior to 2005.

It is unclear what you are asking to be honest with you - I think that as it is now 2009 that you are well out of time to bring any kind of tribunal case plus where would the papers be served to seeing as MG Rover Group no longer exists?

What have the pension holders said - have they said that they cannot release any money to you until you reach retirement age?

Jacobscream

Hi, Sleepless and Horace,

Thanks for coming back to me:

My query is:

I was long-term sick at the time MG Rover was liquidated ( I remained on the suspended payroll as it was always my intention to return to full-time work there when and if I could and my managers wanted me to do that).
So my redundancy terms were reduced ( fair enough)

BUT nobody at that time informed me it would be impossible to take ill-health early retirement at enhanced terms after they made me redundent.

I am now 54 and have applied for my pension and am told it will not be enhanced as I have technically left the company.

I am in contact with them and the pensions advisory service have told me to appeal as they had a duty of care when they liquidated the company knowing how ill I had been ( I still did some occasional advisory work for them) to inform me of how it would jepodise my pension.


I am terribly upset by this and the insensitive person who first replied to my post has increased this. I feel I have been penalised three times:

1. I became too ill to work.
2. I had reduced redundency because I was sick
3. Now my pension will be affected

The only crime I commited was to want to work ,not be off sick and try and secure my job by remaining on the suspended payroll. Now I find I would have been better to take ill-health retirement in 1993 and I would now be £200,000's better off. All becasue retirement seemed like giving in and not paying my dues by working for a living,


Kind regards,

Jacobscream

Jacobscream

Yes I am doing a degree at the OU in the hope I could perhaps work from home in some capacity - is that so wrong?

I was a professional woman with a career behind and in front of me when I was taken ill - I didn't ask for it and I certainly was not going to take it lying down - so I have always tried in some way to keep my skills alive.

At the moment my hopes of going back into the workplace are zero and realistically my aim to go back to work will probably never happen. Certainly my consultants and GP think I would be silly to try - but I still hold out the hope- is that so wrong?

What am I supposed to do give up all hope and roll over and die?

sleepless_saver

Don't waste time taking bendix seriously - you will see what I mean if you have a look at bendix's other posts . And if you just want to see sensible responses, put any trolls you come across on your Ignore list (see User CP)

Horace

Ignore Bendix.

Unfortunately there are a few ex MG Rover people in the same situation who have suddenly found themselves with reduced pensions due to ill health (sometimes the government has been to blame for that). I would take the Pensions Advisory Service's advice and submit an appeal, however, I don't think that you will have much luck. I have also heard (although I am not sure how true it is) that those people who were made redundant in 2005 have much reduced pensions as opposed to those who were made redundant when BMW took over as their pensions were transferred to BMW, if you stayed on after BMW pulled out and you stayed with the Phoenix Four then your pension moved away from BMW.

There is a lot of support for disabled people to get into work - in fact there are more disabled people who are self employed that those more able. If you have the energy then there is no reason why you cannot run a business from home - the Disabled Entrepreneurs give good advice as do Business Link etc. If you are self employed you can be visited by Access to Work as their aim is to help disabled people such as myself into work - if you are self employed then any adjustments are paid for in full by the DWP and not the self employed person.

I am sorry that I am unable to help further but I wish you well and hope that you do manage to work from home.

Debt_Free_Chick

Jacobscream wrote: »

BUT nobody at that time informed me it would be impossible to take ill-health early retirement at enhanced terms after they made me redundent.

We need to see the precise wording of the ill-health retirement rule in the pension scheme rules.

Usually, you have to be dismissed on ill-health terms in order to qualify for an ill-health pension. Redundancy is not ill-health terms, so you might not have qualified for an ill-health pension for this reason.

You say your health was a reason for redundancy but - in law - this can not be the case. Redundancy means that the job/position is no longer required/necessary .... so your health has no impact on your dismissal.

To be honest, if the Pensions Advisory Service are on the case, you should let that investigation run its course and not "muddy the waters" by pursuing a separate investigation (I say that as a PAS adviser!).

HTH

cyclonebri1

Jacobscream wrote: »

Yes I am doing a degree at the OU in the hope I could perhaps work from home in some capacity - is that so wrong?

I was a professional woman with a career behind and in front of me when I was taken ill - I didn't ask for it and I certainly was not going to take it lying down - so I have always tried in some way to keep my skills alive.

At the moment my hopes of going back into the workplace are zero and realistically my aim to go back to work will probably never happen. Certainly my consultants and GP think I would be silly to try - but I still hold out the hope- is that so wrong?

What am I supposed to do give up all hope and roll over and die?[/QUOTE]

:T:T Thats my standard reply to my doctors and anyone else who suggests I can't do this or that. It's the only way of looking at it:T:T