Enhanced pension

db4381

My oh has been diagnosed with chronic asthma the doc has said working within a wood dust environment has contributed to this condition. My OH has asked if the company he has worked 39 years for would let him take his pension early with an enhancement due to his condition. They have said most probably not and if that is the outcome they will seek to terminate his contract because he can’t return to work.
should he just agree to this or should he seek legal advice? 

Marcon

db4381 said:

My oh has been diagnosed with chronic asthma the doc has said working within a wood dust environment has contributed to this condition. My OH has asked if the company he has worked 39 years for would let him take his pension early with an enhancement due to his condition. They have said most probably not and if that is the outcome they will seek to terminate his contract because he can’t return to work.
should he just agree to this or should he seek legal advice? 

What sort of pension scheme is he is at present? He may have been in a defined benefit (aka final salary) scheme at some point during his 39 years with the company, but you need to check if he is still actively building up DB benefits or - as is now much more common - the DB scheme has closed to the build up of more benefits and he is in a defined contribution scheme.

The other thing to check is whether or not the company offers employees PHI (permanent health insurance - nothing to do with medical cover such as BUPA, but basically a salary replacement if they become too ill to work).

Undervalued

db4381 said:

My oh has been diagnosed with chronic asthma the doc has said working within a wood dust environment has contributed to this condition. My OH has asked if the company he has worked 39 years for would let him take his pension early with an enhancement due to his condition. They have said most probably not and if that is the outcome they will seek to terminate his contract because he can’t return to work.
should he just agree to this or should he seek legal advice? 

It depends on the terms of his pension scheme.

With many schemes early ill health retirement will only be an option if he is completely unable to work, not just unable to do his current job.

If his illness is a disability (for employment law purposes) then the employer is obliged to make "reasonable adjustments" to help him remain at work. If that is not possible or if the necessary adjustments would cost more than is "reasonable" then they can look towards terminating his contract.

If however he is just ill (forgive the expression!) then they are not obliged to make any adjustments and can basically say do you full job as contracted or stay off sick until he is dismissed on capability grounds.

Has he had an assessment by an occupational health specialist?

TELLIT01

Many policies will have a specific list of conditions which permit enhanced pension payments.  A chronic health condition may limit what  a person can do without necessarily reducing life expectancy.

AskAsk

as others have said, enhanced pension is not easy to get as it often becomes payable only if the member can no longer carry out any kind of work but it will depend on the scheme rules. 

you can contact your pension provider, that is the people who administer the pension scheme (which is not necessarily your employer) for further details on whether you will be eligible to claim.