Ill Health Retirement

Popsicle

Hi

I have worked for the Council for 28 years I have recently been off sick for 7 months with a work related illness. I am attending a Stage 4 meeting which states I am being put forward for dismissal/capability. I have completed the ill health retirement form and they have wrote to my GP for more information The Occupational Health out me forward for IHR. There is no mention of this in my Stage 4 letter. I am concerned that if I attend the meeting and am dismissed what will happen to my IHR. Has anyone been through this with a Council and I am wondering can I postpone this meeting till they have the relevant info from my GP?

Bydand

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/130349/ill-health-retirement

Hi,

Ref IHR , my understanding is that your employer cannot dismiss you if you’re IHR application has already started. You have to remain employed until the outcome of the application is given and indeed any subsequent appeals have been exhausted. Only after an unsuccessful application would dismissal be looked at.

Likewise if your employment was terminated, you are likely going to be unable to retrospectively apply for IHR. It has to be done during your time in employment which makes sense.

I was civil service so not council so hopefully others will chime in and offer you advice but the above is my understanding.

If I were you I would seek clarity that your HR dept has logged your IHR application on their system and that it is now live. Once HR receive your application there will be processes and timelines that they are duty bound to follow. I would get some kind of written confirmation that this is the case. If it hasn’t been logged then you need to enquire as to the reason why not as this is important from your perspective to have been done.

Ask HR why no mention of your IHR application was made in the stage 4 letter and that you wish this to be included and recorded.

You need to be very proactive in this and any dealings you have with others. Do not rely on others thinking they will keep you right.

If you haven’t already done so look at both your absence management policy and your specific pension policy, both should mention info about IHR.

Seek guidance from your union

Good luck moving forward

The below is an exert from the civil service information site but most pension schemes generally operate along the same lines.

Retirement assessment has been completed?Hide 

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.

Popsicle

Thank for your reply which is very helpful

Mary_Scope

Hi @Popsicle and a warm welcome to the community!

I see Bydand has given some great advice and answered your question so I won't add anything else today but it's great to have you here on the community and I hope you enjoy your time here😀