Hi, my name is jimsell! Can I still work in the future if I take ill health retirement now?

jimsell

Looking for some advice on ill health retirement. 

Albus_Scope

Hi there @jimsell and welcome to the community. 

I see you're after some advice regarding ill health retirement?  Please feel free to ask away and we'll do our best to answer.

jimsell

I am currently going through ill health retirement with my employer. Will I still be able to work in the future. I am 46 years old.

Albus_Scope

Hi @jimsell, I sorry to hear your work want you to take ill health retirement.  The Scope website has a lot of information regarding it here which I hope can help you? Having looked online, I'm seeing that you can return to work after ill health retirement.
Can I ask if you're doing this voluntarily?  Have you already looked into things like reasonable adjustments in your workplace? 

Rosie_Scope

Hello @jimsell, looks like you've got some members helping you out already but thought I'd pop in to say hi!

I'm just going to move your post over to our boards about work and employment so that more members can find it and offer their advice. I hope that's okay.

Welcome to the community

Bydand

jimsell said:

I am currently going through ill health retirement with my employer. Will I still be able to work in the future. I am 46 years old.

Hi, 
Without knowing a few more details from you it is difficult to advise really, but I do understand that not everyone wants or feels able to share.

I worked for the civil service and recently was awarded IHR so although not an expert I do have a good working knowledge of the process in general.

Ill  health retirement should always be the last resort having exhausted all other avenues to stay in your employment, ie different working hours, workplace adjustments, part time etc.

Have you started the formal process or just discussing things with your employer?

have you had workplace adjustments? 

Are you in a workplace pension scheme and if so which one? 

Do you have union representation?

Any information about whether you can work again should your IHR be successful should be contained in your pension policy and I highly suggest reading the policy several times through to familiarise yourself with it fully, especially the key phrasing of words in relation to illness or disease and permanency of any illness…..it is not enough just to prove you have an illness or disease that effects your ability to work or not, you have to directly link you’re evidence to how your pension provider phrases their criteria.

In relation to whether you can work again ( sometimes in any capacity) it can come down to the award you might receive as most IHR pensions have various ‘award’ tiers associated with them and which one you may fall into will determine whether you are allowed to work or not. 

Sorry I can’t be more help, but my advice is to look at any pension policy and scrutinise your illness against their criteria for IHR.

jimsell

Bydand said:

jimsell said:

I am currently going through ill health retirement with my employer. Will I still be able to work in the future. I am 46 years old.

Hi, 
Without knowing a few more details from you it is difficult to advise really, but I do understand that not everyone wants or feels able to share.

I worked for the civil service and recently was awarded IHR so although not an expert I do have a good working knowledge of the process in general.

Ill  health retirement should always be the last resort having exhausted all other avenues to stay in your employment, ie different working hours, workplace adjustments, part time etc.

Have you started the formal process or just discussing things with your employer?

have you had workplace adjustments? 

Are you in a workplace pension scheme and if so which one? 

Do you have union representation?

Any information about whether you can work again should your IHR be successful should be contained in your pension policy and I highly suggest reading the policy several times through to familiarise yourself with it fully, especially the key phrasing of words in relation to illness or disease and permanency of any illness…..it is not enough just to prove you have an illness or disease that effects your ability to work or not, you have to directly link you’re evidence to how your pension provider phrases their criteria.

In relation to whether you can work again ( sometimes in any capacity) it can come down to the award you might receive as most IHR pensions have various ‘award’ tiers associated with them and which one you may fall into will determine whether you are allowed to work or not. 

Sorry I can’t be more help, but my advice is to look at any pension policy and scrutinise your illness against their criteria for IHR.

I have tried various adjustments over the past 3-4 years and unfortunately it feels like IHER is the best for me at this moment in time. I have two workplace pensions. One is a DB scheme and the other a DC pension.

In the IHER policy it states two tiers:
One where you can't work again. The second tier when you can't do the same job again but can work again in the future.

My question is that hopefully in a few years I will feel able to work again and hopefully in a similar role but for a different company. Is this possible? 

Bydand

jimsell said:

Bydand said:

jimsell said:

I am currently going through ill health retirement with my employer. Will I still be able to work in the future. I am 46 years old.

Hi, 
Without knowing a few more details from you it is difficult to advise really, but I do understand that not everyone wants or feels able to share.

I worked for the civil service and recently was awarded IHR so although not an expert I do have a good working knowledge of the process in general.

Ill  health retirement should always be the last resort having exhausted all other avenues to stay in your employment, ie different working hours, workplace adjustments, part time etc.

Have you started the formal process or just discussing things with your employer?

have you had workplace adjustments? 

Are you in a workplace pension scheme and if so which one? 

Do you have union representation?

Any information about whether you can work again should your IHR be successful should be contained in your pension policy and I highly suggest reading the policy several times through to familiarise yourself with it fully, especially the key phrasing of words in relation to illness or disease and permanency of any illness…..it is not enough just to prove you have an illness or disease that effects your ability to work or not, you have to directly link you’re evidence to how your pension provider phrases their criteria.

In relation to whether you can work again ( sometimes in any capacity) it can come down to the award you might receive as most IHR pensions have various ‘award’ tiers associated with them and which one you may fall into will determine whether you are allowed to work or not. 

Sorry I can’t be more help, but my advice is to look at any pension policy and scrutinise your illness against their criteria for IHR.

I have tried various adjustments over the past 3-4 years and unfortunately it feels like IHER is the best for me at this moment in time. I have two workplace pensions. One is a DB scheme and the other a DC pension.

In the IHER policy it states two tiers:
One where you can't work again. The second tier when you can't do the same job again but can work again in the future.

My question is that hopefully in a few years I will feel able to work again and hopefully in a similar role but for a different company. Is this possible? 

Hi,

Without knowing the ins and outs of your pension scheme I really am just guessing but from what you have stated, if you receive a lower tier award then yes you can apply for any other job just like anyone else. If given an award it is because you have evidenced that you are unfit to continue in your current role or position, not that you are unemployable. This would apply to an advertised position with your current employer or outwith this entirely.

However if your condition or illness is serious enough to warrant higher or top tier IHR then yes it may well throw up issues in relation to seeking gainful employment in the future….Gainful employment is usually recognised as up to 30 hours of work a week, but and I stress this, you need to be absolutely certain of the schemes stipulations and rules.

However I would like to think that if you have been awarded the top tier then the pension provider has accepted through medical evidence that you cannot work at all, and the question of working in the future becomes a mute point as you should be genuinely too ill to do so, whether you want to or not.

Wibbles

Bydand said:

jimsell said:

Bydand said:

jimsell said:

I am currently going through ill health retirement with my employer. Will I still be able to work in the future. I am 46 years old.

Hi, 
Without knowing a few more details from you it is difficult to advise really, but I do understand that not everyone wants or feels able to share.

I worked for the civil service and recently was awarded IHR so although not an expert I do have a good working knowledge of the process in general.

Ill  health retirement should always be the last resort having exhausted all other avenues to stay in your employment, ie different working hours, workplace adjustments, part time etc.

Have you started the formal process or just discussing things with your employer?

have you had workplace adjustments? 

Are you in a workplace pension scheme and if so which one? 

Do you have union representation?

Any information about whether you can work again should your IHR be successful should be contained in your pension policy and I highly suggest reading the policy several times through to familiarise yourself with it fully, especially the key phrasing of words in relation to illness or disease and permanency of any illness…..it is not enough just to prove you have an illness or disease that effects your ability to work or not, you have to directly link you’re evidence to how your pension provider phrases their criteria.

In relation to whether you can work again ( sometimes in any capacity) it can come down to the award you might receive as most IHR pensions have various ‘award’ tiers associated with them and which one you may fall into will determine whether you are allowed to work or not. 

Sorry I can’t be more help, but my advice is to look at any pension policy and scrutinise your illness against their criteria for IHR.

I have tried various adjustments over the past 3-4 years and unfortunately it feels like IHER is the best for me at this moment in time. I have two workplace pensions. One is a DB scheme and the other a DC pension.

In the IHER policy it states two tiers:
One where you can't work again. The second tier when you can't do the same job again but can work again in the future.

My question is that hopefully in a few years I will feel able to work again and hopefully in a similar role but for a different company. Is this possible? 

Hi,

Without knowing the ins and outs of your pension scheme I really am just guessing but from what you have stated, if you receive a lower tier award then yes you can apply for any other job just like anyone else. If given an award it is because you have evidenced that you are unfit to continue in your current role or position, not that you are unemployable. This would apply to an advertised position with your current employer or outwith this entirely.

However if your condition or illness is serious enough to warrant higher or top tier IHR then yes it may well throw up issues in relation to seeking gainful employment in the future….Gainful employment is usually recognised as up to 30 hours of work a week, but and I stress this, you need to be absolutely certain of the schemes stipulations and rules.

However I would like to think that if you have been awarded the top tier then the pension provider has accepted through medical evidence that you cannot work at all, and the question of working in the future becomes a mute point as you should be genuinely too ill to do so, whether you want to or not.

I think that you mean by
"Gainful employment is usually recognised as up to 30 hours of work a week,.."
At least 30 hour per week