Is it possible to challenge pension offer for Ill health retirement?

ejlmcdonald

Hi,

I am 48 and have just been approved by the board of trustees for my pension for ill health retirement as I have Parkinson's. It is a final salary pension scheme but I had left the company so am a deferred member. The board then passed it to the scheme administrators to calculate the amount offered. I was told that this was sent off to London to the Actuary for calculation.

The offer has come back at 70% of the amount I would have received at normal retirement age (Roughly £16.5k down to £11.5k) (Outstanding query as to whether my normal retirement age is 60 or 65 but that's another story).

Unfortunately early-onset Parkinson's is associated with a reduced life expectancy and the estimate for those diagnosed at 45, like me is +23 years, taking me to 68. I don't know for sure but it seems to me that this has not been take into account. Is it possible to challenge this and ask for an individual calculation?

Many thanks for any help.

bigbigmamamoo

Each pension scheme has its own rules for ill-health retirement, so you need to get a copy of your schemes rules. I would start by asking for an explanation of how they worked out the pension.

I was just granted ill-health retirement and I had a copy of the rules and worked out what I expected to get and then checked it against what I am getting. You should be able to do the same. There didn't seem to be any flexibility in my scheme, although there were rules that applied for people with reduced life expectancy and for situations where the pensioner died before 65.

Hope this helps