Ill Health Retirement

Information about Ill health

In this section you will find information about the benefits payable from the Teachers Superannuation Order 2011 (the Scheme) if you become too ill to do your job.

What is ill health retirement?

If you are an active member with at least two years’ membership of the Scheme and are too ill to work in your present job, you may be able to retire early and take your pension benefits.

The Scheme provides two types of ill health retirement which are dependent on the severity of your condition and the likelihood of you being able to work again:

• Permanently can't teach but can do other work
  If you are assessed as being permanently unable to teach but can do other work up to your normal pension age, you may eligible for accrued benefits, which are based on your accrued reckonable service.
  
  
• Permanently can't teach and can't do any other work
  If you are assessed as being both totally unable to teach or take up gainful employment, you may be eligible for enhanced (or Total Incapacity) benefits. This is in addition to the benefits based on your accrued reckonable service.

Here’s what you should know about enhancement:

• This is on top of your standard benefits. 
• The maximum amount of enhancement you could get is half the service you could have completed before your normal pensionable age. If you've already been awarded premature or actuarially adjusted retirement benefits you can’t normally obtain ill health benefits.

Terminal illness

If you have a life expectancy of less than a year, your ill health pension may be fully converted to a lump sum payment. However, you have to ask for this when you apply for ill health benefits because a pension can’t be converted to a lump sum once it has come into payment. The lump sum payment will be approximately five times the annual pension. We will automatically convert the maximum amount of pension to lump sum.  

The short-service serious ill health grant

This is if you’ve less than a year to live but haven’t been in service long enough to qualify for ill health benefits (two years). If you have at least one year of pensionable employment, you may receive a short service ill health grant. The grant is 1/12 of your final average salary for the length of your reckonable service (years and days).

How do I make a claim for Ill Health retirement benefits? 

Active Members:

In all instances, active members should discuss making an application with their employer and their employer's Occupational Health Adviser, as both parties are required to support any ill health application. More information can be found on the Ill Health Retirement Factsheet.

Deferred or Preserved Members:

If you are not an active member of the scheme, but have a deferred or preserved pension benefit in the scheme, then you will need to make a claim by completing the Teachers Pension Scheme Deferred Ill Health Application Form.