Civil Service Ill-Health Pension - Classic/alpha

hugheskevi

queensclose1 said:

My communication is slow and slurred  Im now 60

I joined the scheme in 2006

what the difference between just retiring now and retiring on illl health?

The ill-health test is whether you are able to do your own job, or likely to be able to before Normal Pension age (lower tier). You are also tested to see whether you are able to do any job, or likely to be able to before Normal Pension age (upper tier).

If you qualify on lower tier you get your accrued pension put into payment without reduction for early payment. If you qualify for upper tier your pension is enhanced based on your past service and time left to Normal Pension age.

As you joined in 2006 you are presumably in the Premium pension scheme (not Classic, which was for pre-2002 joiners), with Normal Pension age of 60. Hence there would be no benefit in ill-health retirement as you are already above Normal Pension age. However, you are also in-scope of the McCloud judgment and are well below the Normal Pension age of the alpha scheme so would benefit from that in due course if you were to qualify for ill-health retirement, so it would be beneficial to go through ill-health process, or make clear (keep evidence) that you would like to apply for ill-health, so that you can demonstrate at a future time that you would have applied for ill-health had you been in the alpha scheme.

queensclose1 said:

my thinking is to leave it and wait to be ordered back to work the go on the sick and let them apply For the I’ll Heath retirement

It is common for there to be lengthy periods of sick leave prior to ill-health application. If you applied on or after 1 April 2022 you would be in the alpha pension scheme, and so would be assessed under that scheme.

Do you happen to know whether those who qualify under McCloud can chose to be assessed against Classic medical criteria or is everyone assessed against Alpha criteria? Is it is the financial terms which can retrospectively be chosen on Classic or Alpha terms for the 2015-2022 period? 

I am awaiting an OH assessment and will be seeking IHR, but thought I would be assessed on Alpha terms regardless of when the IHR date would be set.

You will be assessed under whichever scheme you are in at the time of ill-health application.

In due course you will be retrospectively assessed under the terms of the alternative scheme and provided with an option under either scheme, based on the outcome of the ill-health assessments.

Trying_to_be_good

hugheskevi said:

Do you happen to know whether those who qualify under McCloud can chose to be assessed against Classic medical criteria or is everyone assessed against Alpha criteria? Is it is the financial terms which can retrospectively be chosen on Classic or Alpha terms for the 2015-2022 period? 

I am awaiting an OH assessment and will be seeking IHR, but thought I would be assessed on Alpha terms regardless of when the IHR date would be set.

You will be assessed under whichever scheme you are in at the time of ill-health application.

In due course you will be retrospectively assessed under the terms of the alternative scheme and provided with an option under either scheme, based on the outcome of the ill-health assessments.

If the retirement date is after March 2022 I don’t think you’ll be able to choose the ill-health retirement of the older scheme as by then you’d be in alpha but you would qualify for the “normal” retirement on you old scheme, and it’s Normal Retirement Age so pension without any actuarial reduction for being paid early.

it takes a long time for the process to complete - I was already on nil pay by the time the pension payment could be put in place.

Trying_to_be_good

MrsBrooks13 said:

Trying_to_be_good said:

If you can be ill-health retired before April 2022 it could be on Classic terms (if you were a Civil Servant in March 2012), otherwise it’ll be under alpha terms. 

Do you happen to know whether those who qualify under McCloud can chose to be assessed against Classic medical criteria or is everyone assessed against Alpha criteria? Is it is the financial terms which can retrospectively be chosen on Classic or Alpha terms for the 2015-2022 period? 

I am awaiting an OH assessment and will be seeking IHR, but thought I would be assessed on Alpha terms regardless of when the IHR date would be set.

Assuming you were in the Classic scheme and hadn’t opted for anything else, It’s either

an alpha IHR - alpha criteria and alpha pension for service from 2015 plus accrued Classic pension to 2015 - or

Classic IHR - Classic criteria and accrued Classic pension plus enhancement.

They’re not anticipating processing both figures immediately for everyone, it may be 2023 before I see my Classic calculation (which I already have on a spreadsheet of my own) and the additional money as legislation needs to be in place for retrospective tax consequences that don’t affect me!

MrsBrooks13

Assuming you were in the Classic scheme and hadn’t opted for anything else, It’s either

an alpha IHR - alpha criteria and alpha pension for service from 2015 plus accrued Classic pension to 2015 - or

Classic IHR - Classic criteria and accrued Classic pension plus enhancement.

Thanks Hugheskevi and Trying-to-be-good. I’m in Alpha, was Classic pre-2015 then automatically transferred to Alpha. I have over 30 yrs service. 

I believe Classic would be more beneficial for me and hoped an IHR application before 31/03/22 would mean assessment on Classic criteria and terms for my whole service as hugheskevi has stated. 

But if it’s based on ‘retirement date’ then presumably that’s out of my hands and unlikely to be before April? Management and OH are dragging their feet …….

hugheskevi

Trying_to_be_good said:

If the retirement date is after March 2022 I don’t think you’ll be able to choose the ill-health retirement of the older scheme as by then you’d be in alpha but you would qualify for the “normal” retirement on you old scheme, and it’s Normal Retirement Age so pension without any actuarial reduction for being paid early.

it takes a long time for the process to complete - I was already on nil pay by the time the pension payment could be put in place.

That is generally true, but it depends firstly on date of application and secondly on contingent decisions.

If the application is on or before 31st March 2022 then for the 2015 change members were permitted to remain in their legacy scheme until the ill-health process had been decided. It is yet to be seen what the process will be for in-train applications as at 1 April 2022.

In due course members could make a 'contingent decision' argument that they would have applied for ill-health had they been in alpha, but didn't make an application as they were in their legacy scheme. Given that premium and nuvos members above Normal Pension age would not benefit from an ill-health award if over Normal Pension age, this would be a reasonable contingent decision argument. It would also assist to have evidence that the member considered this, hence getting on record that they would like to make an alpha ill-health application would be helpful, even though not possible at current time as they are in legacy scheme - that would give convincing evidence when they come to make a contingent decision argument in future.