Medical Retirement

woodly · 1 September 2018 at 2:18AM

Hi I would be grateful for any advice please on medical retirement. I work for a local authority and have a long term health condition and disability that is progressive. My employer over the years has made reasonable adjustments to enable me to continue to work albeit in a limited capacity and a specific job role created for me. I work part time and have agreed flexibility of attendance and home working. I have access to work support and recommendations in place. Despite all this support I am at a stage where I cannot continue for much longer. Work has always been a welcome distraction and proved my worth to myself and kept me sane. However it is now far too much for me to manage as my condition has worsened significantly in a short time frame. I would like help please on broaching the medical retirement issue with my employer. I have read the policy for LA Medical retirement and understand the process, however, do I need to exhaust the good will and reasonable adjustments of my employer in home working and flexible hours and/or be off sick to have a chance of a successful application? My employer is well away of my medical issues and recent permanent changes to health and the impact this is having, they are extremely supportive and will do anything to keep me - which in many ways makes things worse. I have a previous civil service pension for 14 years service and a bank pension for 4 years. Would these also be accessible if medical retirement from my current employer was approved or do I have to apply to each employers scheme? Any advice gratefully appreciated. Thank you

gwynlas · 1 September 2018 at 10:12AM

Medical retirement is very hard to achieve unless you are relatively close to retirement age but in the first instance you should try and discuss this with a full time official of your union as they are more likely to have more relevant knowledge than local rep.
They could then approach your local HR department to open negociations. It would help your case if your employer was looking at reorganisation potential redundancies.
Sorry to hear that you feel unable to carry on your employment even with the support of management as you say it gives you the feeling of worth.

sangie595 · 1 September 2018 at 10:54AM

Medical retirement isn't going to be an easy option. It is actually about not just struggling to work, or even being unable to do your job, but about being unable to do any work. So it isn't something you can just apply for, and it is highly unlikely that your employer would even consider putting you forward until you had exhausted all sick pay and all other alternatives. As you seem to be in work at the moment and your manager is supportive of adjustments to maintain that position, then I'm relatively confident you wouldn't get it now

Prudent · 1 September 2018 at 1:07PM

I got medical retirement (teacher's scheme) a couple of years ago. I agree it is difficult to get, but not impossible. You do need to see your union rep as the schemes all have their own rules. It may be possible for you to get retirement if you can't do your own job, but you may not get any enhancement if you can do another job. The things I found to be important (but again you need to check your own scheme) were:

The support of my medical team, I had three consultants letters and a GP, plus a detailed report letter all of which were clear that, on the balance of probabilty, I would be unable to work again.

I had exhausted all adjustments and my employer sent a report outlining the adjustments that had been tried.

I had about four years of an increasing level of absense and had exhausted my sick pay.

I went through occupational health.

My union had advised against applying and told me to keep fighting for my job. I had no quality of life as it was too much of a struggle to work. I therefore made the decision to apply and was successful. It was the right decision and I can now manage my illness a lot better. The financial hit was huge, but I have used this site for years so was well prepared to cope and had already paid of my mortgage and built up very good savings.

You will need to apply to each of your schemes and depending on their own criteria they may not all make the same decision.

woodly · 1 September 2018 at 3:16PM

Hi, Thank you for your replies and advice. I fully appreciate it is not an easy process hence my early thoughts and trying to forward plan a little if I can. My medical condtion is such that it is deteriorating rapidly and will leave me unable to be redeployed or undertake any gainful employment for any employer. I am already unable to work over 16 hours or longer than a few hours a day and have a unique job role created for my specific needs (as they were). I will contact my Union, they were excellent in assisting me to maintain employment, obtain reasonable adjustments and be moved to a job role that was suited to my then disability and medical needs. Thank you all again for sharing your experiences and knowledge.

50Twuncle · 2 September 2018 at 11:24AM

What pension are you on ?
I was on a "Classic pension2 - and took medical retirement, 9 years ago - when I was aged 46
It is the best thing that I have ever done !

lincroft1710 · 2 September 2018 at 5:11PM

Although any income will obviously be very helpful if you are granted medical retirement, a bank pension based on 4 yrs service will be quite small unless you were a highly paid merchant banker.

Kynthia · 4 September 2018 at 10:51AM

I'd suggest posting in the retirement and pensions board. There have been many other posts on this subject and tgere are those with relevant knowledge of the lgps scheme that will respond.

Medical Retirement

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free