Can I return to work after medical retirement

Angus68

Hi all, new to the site and after a bit of advice.
I was medically retired in 2015 after 20 years in civil service. Like most from my era I had been on classic pension scheme, then moved to Alpha in the year of retirement. I was granted upper tier from alpha, and have been offered a parting job doing a couple of hours a day in an admin role.
My question is, would this have any impact on my pension?
Thank you in advance
Angus

sevenhills

I saw a TV program about a chap that received a military pension after being retired on health grounds, he was taken to court for fiddling.
I would guess it would depend on your illness, and the terms of your pension.

xylophone

SSPA produce

Returning to Work after retiring with
Upper Tier Ill health benefits
Factsheet

which you can access through Google - does your scheme produce anything similar?

Otherwise check your own documents or ring MyCSP and ask.

Angus68

Thanks for those replies,
Under classic pension rules, if medically retired you can return to work out with civil service with no impact on pension as far as I am aware.
Just wondered if same with the Alpha pension as nothing in documents that I have cover this.
This new employment would be out with civil service.
Will call mycsp to see if they can answer.
Thanks

mfw2502

Hi, not sure if any impact on your pension but be careful. I was medically dismissed after a heart attack in 2015 & after taking partial retirement and returning to work had my 10 years service wiped out and my severance reduced to £156?? They say this is because service restarts from day of returning to work. If your job offer us in public sector it may affect your pension entitlement. Get professional advice.
Cheers.

mfw2502

Just to elaborate on my own case & at the risk of sounding bitter MyCSP are in my opinion exploiting their private equity status with regards to public sector pensions. Read on if you don't get too bored!
After 10 years service in the Home Office I was dismissed on the 10th December 2015 for medical inefficiency. This came about after falling ill with severe heart problems diagnosed in 2014 and after many consultations with the Home Office health care providers ATOS.
After being signed off by the Home Office & my own doctors for over 9 months I was deemed fit to resume work in about April 2015 and did so although I was under attendance warnings that meant if I had one days absence I could be sacked. I discussed with my manager and ATOS health ways to ensure that I did not lose my job including reducing my hours and taking partial retirement. This was not something I wanted to do but was left in no doubt by management that I would be sacked if I did not address my sickness absences and as I said I wanted to continue working. I was advised I could reduce my hours and access my pension which seemed a good solution for both parties at the time as I had been on nil salary for 4 months so had no income and had exhausted my savings. So wanting to keep my job I applied for and was granted reduced hours and received a pension lump sum of £3,000. Everything was great for a few months on my reduced hours but then I became ill again whilst actually in work and was subsequently dismissed for medical inefficiency. Only then was I informed by letter from MyCSP that by taking a pension payment and partial retirement that my 10 years reckonable service had been wiped out under section 11 of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. MyCSP also reduced my pension by 22/36ths because I had taken an early lump sum. When I questioned this I was told that neither MyCSP nor CSCS had any obligation to make me aware of the penalties associated with medical inefficiency dismissal as the rules and regulations are on their respective websites and employees were expected to access this for themselves. The section 11 ruling is different to all other CSCS rules as it is described as discretionary and grossly unfair, unlike compulsory or voluntary redundancy, however my manager gave me a 100% discretionary severance but was also unaware that my service had been wiped out by the pension rules. My manager complained on my behalf but was warned off by senior managers. One of my colleagues dismissed under the same circumstances of medical inefficiency received £36,000 severance because she had not tried to retain her job or take partial retirement. This is penalising me for trying to stay in employment and for being ill. I was opted into the pension against my will with the government's workplace pension scheme and had only been in for 3 years so to delete my 10 years severance pay for 3 years pension contributions is grossly unfair and meant I would get a reduced payment of £38 a month pension but lose my severance pay of some £19,700. At that time it was impossible to contact MyCSP and it is well documented that they were having huge difficulties in the transfer of public sector pensions from Capita. This actually led to Francis Maude resigning from parliament.
At the Employment Tribunal I instigated the judge declared for MyCSP & the Home Office despite the Barrister engaged by them stating that I was just unlucky that my case was unique in that I returned to work only to later suffer medical inefficiency dismissal, fall foul of section 11, and that although I didn't have this information it made no difference as the highly expensive barrister said I was not meant to understand the complex pension rules set out over 236 pages of the scheme. Disgraceful. The Home Office pensions expert brought in also stated that it was an unfortunate oversight by MyCSP that information was not provided for my particular set of circumstances but could not explain the 3 different sets of figures MyCSP had provided. Disgraceful.
The judge ignored all this and instead reasoned that I should have made myself aware and that if I did not have access I should have gotten advice from my union or management. My union PCS did not represent me at my dismissal hearing despite stating a union official would attend and my management had no clue of the regulations. MyCSP is 51% owned by private equity firm Equiniti and provides no information of how they are stealing public sector severance payments from those dismissed for being ill.
The government legal department state they spent £27,000 on 16 Solicitors and a Barrister defending this unique case at the employment tribunal and have issued proceedings to recover those costs from me. Not only have they stolen my severance compensation of £19,700 and adter reducing my pension by 22/36ths they now want paying for this disgraceful decision.
I requested a copy of my contributions since starting work ( I've never been unemployed)and have been sent the information that I have 43 years of contributions of over £270,000 yet this disgraceful decision means I am now destined to a life on ESA benefit of £400 a month. At the rate of £38 a month my actual contribution of £5647 to a £12,000 pension pot means I will need to live to be 98 just to get back what I paid in. My figures are minute compared to some public sector workers who are having their severance compensation stolen under the guise of pension rules and since Equiniti took over public pensions administration in 2012 they have profited by over £20 million.
My work life is now over because I tried to do the right thing and equity funds owned by the same people who crashed the banking system are raking in huge profits at the expense of honest public servants who lose their livelihoods through illness.
Scandalous policies endorsed by a government that is intent on profiteering at the expense of the workers it employs.
Michael Francis Walsh.