Retrospective ill health retirement (RIHR)

sx1suz21

Hi I am ill & was going to apply for my pension under Early Pension Payment Application but RIHR was mentioned & I would just like to know if anyone knows how this affects your pension if accepted. I know that EPPA means I won't lose a percentage of my pension for taking it early. Any help would be appreciated as my pension scheme nor the HR dept of my previous employer will tell me. Thanks

Andy_L

Is this a Civil Service pension? These are specifc terms in the scheme.

If, when you left the employer, ill-health retirement should have been an option but for some reason wan't considered & you just resigned/were dismissed  RIHR, if approved, changes your reason for leaving  to medical retirement & you get the pension payments backdated to your date of leaving. 
That backdating of payments is the difference between EPPA & RIHR. However for RIHR you have to have been ill at the time you left work, EPPA is if you become ill after leaving

https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/ill-health-retirement-guide-for-members/

Marcon

sx1suz21 said:

Hi I am ill & was going to apply for my pension under Early Pension Payment Application but RIHR was mentioned & I would just like to know if anyone knows how this affects your pension if accepted. I know that EPPA means I won't lose a percentage of my pension for taking it early. Any help would be appreciated as my pension scheme nor the HR dept of my previous employer will tell me. Thanks

How unhelpful - they could at least have pointed you in the direction of the relevant information, as Andy has done above.

To save you ploughing through the info on that link, here are the two relevant sections which I hope answer your question:

If you have left your employment and have a preserved pension in classic only, you may apply to receive your pension benefits early if your health breaks down after leaving. Your benefits will not be enhanced but they do attract pensions increase and are not subject to further review. 

The condition for early payment of a preserved pension in classic are that, after leaving your employment with a preserved pension in classic, you fall ill before your scheme pension age and had you remained in your employment as a member of classic you would have been retired on grounds of ill health.

Early payment of preserved pension on medical grounds is not available to classic plus, premiumor nuvos members – except in cases of serious ill health in which life expectancy is twelve months or less (see ‘What if I discover I am terminally ill?’)

Please note:

Early payment of a preserved pension is not the same as considering ill health retirement retrospectively which is an exceptional measure considered only in very restricted circumstances (see ‘What happens if my employment is terminated before an ill health retirement assessment has been completed?’).

and

Your employer should not normally terminate your employment while an ill health retirement assessment is on-going and the outcome has not been confirmed. 

However, there may be occasions when such action has been taken in error – either through:

• a misunderstanding of the circumstances or procedures;
• because your employment has been transferred out of the Civil Service as part of a departmental closure, or Machinery of Government change before your ill health retirement assessment has been completed;

• your employer was running an early exit scheme and believed that you should have the option of taking redundancy by an agreed deadline, in case your ill health retirement application was unsuccessful. Your employer may not have realised that it should be possible to reach separate agreement on early exit departure dates until the outcome of your ill health retirement application is confirmed.

If your employer has taken such action in error, then your application should be allowed to continue, or carried out retrospectively. Your employer may need authorisation from the Scheme Administrator to confirm for the Scheme Medical Adviser, that your assessment can continue, or be carried out retrospectively. Retrospective ill health retirement will apply from the last date of service if your employer decides that they should have granted medical retirement at that date.

In limited circumstances, you may be allowed to apply for ill health retirement retrospectively. Retrospective ill health retirement is not the same as Early Payment of a Preserved Pension (EPPA) - see below for more information. Retrospective ill health retirement may be allowed in exceptional circumstances – usually when there has been an error in the original handling of your case. For example:

• your employer dismisses you for inefficiency because of poor health, without first considering ill health retirement; or
• you resign or take redundancy because of poor health, but you did not know that you could have applied for ill health retirement.

In either case, there generally needs to have been some indication that:

• you were ill at the time you left;
• your ill health affected your performance or attendance and;
• your employer was aware of your health issues.

Please note:

In the above circumstances, your employer should have considered the appropriateness of ill health retirement or told you of your right to apply for ill health retirement, before you left. Not doing so would usually give grounds to allow a retrospective application.

If you believe that you meet the conditions set out above, you should contact your employer, explaining the background and justification for your request. Your employer will need to ask the Scheme Manager for approval to refer your retrospective application to the Scheme Medical Adviser. The Scheme Medical Adviser will not be able to consider any application without approval.