Employers' Guide
Section 8 - Ill Health Retirement
Contents
1. General background 2. The application process 3. After the decision by the DfE Medical Advisers 4. Other information1. General background
It is the joint responsibility of you and your occupational health advisers to determine ways of helping teachers to remain in or return to work, e.g. re-deployment, part-time working or a transfer to a post with less responsibility, or by making other workplace adjustments, before concluding that the teacher should apply for ill-health retirement.
When a teacher is under normal retirement age and applies for ill-health benefits both the application form and medical evidence form should be completed and returned together to TP.
Unless the declaration on an application form has been signed and dated by the applicant and you have completed the certification, an application will be invalid.
All applications and supporting medical evidence will be assessed by the Medical Advisors appointed by the DfE. Where they consider that the teacher is permanently unfit to teach and it is agreed that an application can be accepted, TP will ask you to complete a form to provide service and salary details up to the last day of pensionable employment.
Ill-health benefits can be granted by the Secretary of State to the DfE, if he is satisfied that the applicant has become permanently incapable of any teaching until normal retirement age (i.e. age 60 or 65). There are 2 different levels of benefits that can be awarded:
- Accrued Benefits and
- Total Incapacity Benefits (TIB).
Accrued benefits are awarded if the teacher is assessed as being permanently unable to teach but can do other work. TIB is awarded if the teacher is assessed as being unable to undertake any type of gainful employment. If the teacher is awarded Accrued benefits, their service will not be enhanced. If they are awarded TIB, their service will be enhanced.
To be considered eligible for TIB, the teacher must apply within 6 months of either leaving pensionable employment, or ceasing the payment of ‘Combined contributions’. Additional Contributions for Reservists on grounds of incapacity.
If the teacher has been on a period of sick leave, maternity, paternity, parental or adoption leave, or a career break which immediately followed a period of pensionable employment, to be considered eligible for TIB the application must be made before the sick leave or period of absence ends. If the teacher does not apply for ill-health benefits within these timescales, an application for ill-health benefits can still be made, but the deferred teacher has to meet the TIB criteria (i.e. the deferred teacher must be unable to undertake any gainful employment) and the service used will not be enhanced (i.e. Accrued Benefits will be paid.).
Benefits cannot be awarded to a teacher who has been barred for misconduct or who is under investigation by the DfE with a view to barring. If, after the investigation is complete, the teacher is not subsequently barred, then an application will be considered.
The teacher must not have applied for phased retirement, premature retirement or actuarially reduced benefits in respect of the same period of employment. However, if phased retirement, premature retirement benefits or actuarially reduced benefits have been awarded in respect of an earlier period of service, and the teacher has subsequently taken up further employment in pensionable teaching service and later suffers a subsequent breakdown in health, the teacher is eligible to apply for ill-health benefits for the later period of service.
In all circumstances the teacher must have completed the appropriate retirement qualification periods.
Back to the top2. The application process
The teacher must submit their applications for ill-health benefits initially to you and after you have certified the application you should send the documents: the application form and medical evidence to TP. The exception to this is where the teacher left pensionable employment more than 12 months ago. In those cases, the teacher should send the documents directly to TP.
Where the medical evidence form has been completed by a specialist or GP, it should be sent to your Occupational Health Adviser, along with any supporting reports or correspondence. The application must be assessed by the employer's Occupational Health Adviser for completeness before it is forwarded to TP. It is not possible for TP to obtain any medical reports on the applicant's behalf.
If the view of the Occupational Health Adviser is that the application does not contain enough medical information to enable the DfE Medical Adviser to make a recommendation, the applicant must be given the opportunity to consider what more could be provided. Ultimately, it is for the applicant to decide what is included.
When a condition is severe enough to warrant ill-health retirement, whether this is a psychiatric or physical, it is not unreasonable to expect that the applicant will have had the benefit of a specialist opinion. It would greatly help in the consideration of the application, if the medical information is provided by a specialist. If this is not possible, or the applicant has not been referred to a specialist, then the form should be completed by the applicant's GP or your occupational health physician. Copies of all specialist reports or hospital correspondence relating to the present illness must be included.
All applications for ill-health retirement will be considered on the basis of the medical information submitted with the application.
Back to the top3. After the decision
You and the teacher will be notified in writing if an application is accepted or not. Where the application has been accepted, and the teacher is still actively teaching you should arrange for this to cease with immediate effect. You must provide TP with details of the teacher's pensionable service and salary from the date of your last annual return to the last day of pensionable service.
Where the application is rejected, teachers have the right to appeal and should follow the appeal process, details of which will be sent to the teacher with the rejection letter.
Back to the top4. Other information
Life Commutation – If the teacher is seriously ill, their application has been accepted and the DfE Medical Advisor concludes the teacher’s life expectancy is less than a year, the teacher may request that the retirement pension be converted to a lump sum payment. This is equal to five times the annual pension.
Short service serious ill-health grant – If a teacher is under 75 and has to leave pensionable employment through serious ill-health with a life expectancy of less than 12 months, but has insufficient service to qualify for ill-health benefits, a short service serious ill-health grant may be payable. As with an ill-health application, both forms must be completed. An application cannot be processed until both forms are received in TP.
Re-employment – Where a member has been accepted as unfit for teaching and subsequently returns to teaching for even 1 day after the award of ill health benefits this will result in the immediate cessation of pension payments. You must be satisfied that a person who has retired for reasons of ill health is medically fit to resume teaching.
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