NHS Early Retirement due to Cancer

MrsGarden

hello

I have been diagnosed with a female cancer, now treated, left me feeling generally very, very fatigued. I'm off sick currently after treatment, 3 months in total sick.

Aged 47, 22 years in the NHS, in a demanding role, in the 1995 scheme. I've been told that NHS Pension Boards are very strict on who they award early retirement to. The thinking is that you can recover from cancer and continue to work. Cancer can return of course.

I could voluntarily retire when I'm 50, lose about 37% of my pension/lump sum.

Any advice on how realistic it is to apply for early retirement.?
Thank you very much. Mrs G

andrea_louise

Mrs G,

What an awful experience, I can't give any advice regarding the pension, but do speak to your Occupational Health Department, they can, with your agreement, suggest you return to a less demanding role, and reduced hours on a phased return. One of my friends has recently done just that.

Good luck
A

MrsGarden

andrea_louise wrote: »

Mrs G,

What an awful experience, I can't give any advice regarding the pension, but do speak to your Occupational Health Department, they can, with your agreement, suggest you return to a less demanding role, and reduced hours on a phased return. One of my friends has recently done just that.

Good luck
A

thank you very much A, that's probably what I will need to do and phased return will be a godsend.

In my heart of hearts I feel worn out and would be so grateful for early retirement. Any advice from the forum on early retirement most valuable , thank you

jamesd

One thing to try to be aware of is that the fatigue is likely to pass over time. You might want to wait at least six months or a year before making an irrevocable decision in case it's still the effect of the treatment influencing how you feel. It's probably unwise to make a decision like this at the moment, way too much chance of regretting it later. A phased return should help a lot when it comes to working out how you feel about it as the fatigue passes.

Retiring twenty or so years before state pension age is something to use care with to be sure that you won't have less money than you need. Those twenty years before you get a nice income boost are a long way away. I don't suppose that you have other savings and investments that might make it easier to deal with financially?

You'll also need to consider what you'll do when retired. You may find that you miss work or at least some form of work if you have a lot of time to fill.

MrsGarden

thank you, yes good advice. I think the point about missing work is very relevant to me. Also hanging fire definately. Also, I'm also taking account of survival rates and if I'm still here in 20 years, that will be fantastic. Obviously with cancer, its not just about fatigue, its about having a life long disability and the chance of a return of other cancers and whether I continue to slog, as many NHS staff do, despite some growing public perception held by many that we have gold plated lives. Working in the NHS means coming home late, working through lunch hours, even with adjustments, it can be impossible when you are the only qualified on a ward- dont know whether I can go back to that.

whitesatin

My suggestion is that you go back as soon as you feel you can, maybe staged as you mention, you do your work to the best of your ability without wearing yourself out and see how that goes. If you are doing your best and not meeting targets etc. then it is up to your employer to try and support you. If they don't feel you are up to the job at that stage, maybe they can make some constructive suggestions.

People do live a long time following cancer these days and you are still quite young.

One of the few things I miss about teaching (I went early at 56) was the interaction with people. I keep busy but miss the children and the staff chit chat. I have my husband at home all day (another early retiree at 51) and we can drive each other mad at times.

irishjohn

Hi Mrs G
Hope Strict governance of early retirement due to ill health is important in the current economic climate but you do have a few options open to you.

First - ensure that any return to work is done carefully, phased return etc as recommended and secondly not allowing yourself to be sucked into an unmanageable workload - regrettably if you become too ill to work there will be someone else along in a moment to replace you and you will be history as far as your employers are concerned.

I have not been ill like yourself but for other reasons I looked carefully at my life seven years ago when I was 54. I decided to leave my well paid job and give up my company car and take a risk. I had a small amount of savings, and downsized my house to give me a bit more capital. I then obtained a minimum wage clerical job - one which still stimulated me enough to enable me to tolerate it and learned the joys of living frugally. At 58 I decided I had had enough of that and gave up completely and lived off savings for 18 months until the 60th birthday when I started drawing my early and reduced private pension, paying slightly less than the minimum wage job paid me. I hope to get the state pension at 65.
The result is contentment - and enjoying life.

At 47 with a reduced pension option at 50 - you could perhaps mirror some of my experiences, and if well enough, even work part time to replace the reduction in the pension. The other option is to carry on doing what you are doing to guarantee the full NHS pension at your retirement age at least 13 years away. Financial benefits but with a cost in terms of freedom now. Hope this helps.

MrsGarden

hello thank you for these fantastic replies that are helping me to really think this through

kidmugsy

The pension scheme I was in used to distinguish carefully between "early retirement" and "ill health retirement". Does yours?

atush

I am with James on this. You could in fact recover so well that in a years time you would be wanting to go back to work. After all, 47 is very young. I do feel you need to take another 3-9 months befoe making a decision to go down this route. I used to work at the National Cancer institiute in the USA, and survival rates were good then, they are very much better now.

In fact, should you take a reduced pension early now, it could hurt you later should you go on to (very hopefully) live a long and full life as that income would be lower for decades. And also, should you go back to work after taking this pension, it means you would be paying more tax on it, as you would have another income as well.

Good luck, and sending you best wishes.