Leaflet - Ill-health retirement benefits

Contents

What are the different levels of benefits?

How do I apply for benefits?

How is my pension and lump sum calculated?

Can I return to work?

A key flexibility of the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Pension Scheme (NITPS) is the two levels of ill-health retirement benefits that may be paid. This dual approach aims to support teachers unable to carry out any employment due to illness or injury and those who, while no longer able to work as a teacher, are still able to do other work.

Key points

Ill-health benefits may be paid if you have to retire before Normal Pension Age (NPA) because you are permanently incapable of teaching due to illness or injury.

• Applications should only be submitted after all other avenues, such as redeployment, have been exhausted.
• You must provide medical evidence that your illness permanently prevents you from teaching. Ill-health benefits can be paid at two different levels depending upon the severity of the illness.

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What are the different levels of benefits?

• Total Incapacity Benefits (TIB) and
• Partial Incapacity Benefits (PIB).

What is the difference between TIB and PIB?

• TIB would be awarded if you are assessed as being permanently unable to teach and unable to undertake any other gainful employment.
• PIB would be awarded if you were assessed as being permanently unable to teach but able to do other work.
• If you receive TIB, your service will be enhanced, but if you receive PIB, it will be based on your accrued benefits. If your service is enhanced, this means that it will be increased to more than you have completed when your application is accepted.
• If you are not in pensionable employment and you are not on a career break agreed with your employer, sick leave or parental leave, only PIB can be awarded and your service will not be enhanced. For this to happen you must also meet the criteria for TIB.

Who will decide if I can receive ill-health benefits?

• The medical advisers contracted by the Department of Education will consider your application. The Department of Education will then decide if you can receive benefits based upon the medical advisers’ recommendation.
• Your degree of incapacity will determine whether you are entitled to TIB or PIB.

How much enhancement can be given?

• The total amount of enhancement is half the service you could have completed before NPA for TIB.
• There is no enhancement for PIB.

What if my life expectancy is less than one year?

• If you are terminally ill, you may be able to convert your pension into a lump sum.
• You must request this when you apply for ill-health benefits, as it cannot be made after you receive an ill-health pension.
• This does not affect any survivors’ pensions paid after you die.

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How do I apply for benefits?

• If you are still employed you should obtain a TP5 application form from your employer. Part 1 should be completed by the teacher, part 2 by the reporting doctor and part 3 by your employer.
• If you are no longer employed as a teacher you can download the TP5 application form from the DE website www.deni.gov.uk  or telephone TPB on 028 71319000 quoting your Teachers Reference Number or National Insurance number.
• If you are in service, the TP5 form should be returned to TPB by your employer or by you if you are out of service.
• Employers and their occupational health advisers must look at ways of helping you return to work, e.g. re-deployment, part-time working or a transfer to a post with less responsibility, or consider other workplace adjustments, before concluding that ill-health retirement may be appropriate.
• You and your employer’s occupational health advisor, in conjunction with your medical practitioner, need to provide the medical evidence and complete the application forms.
• If you left pensionable teaching within 12 months of submitting your application, the medical information sections of your application form must be completed by your ex-employer.

What happens after TPB receives my application?

• Your application will be assessed by medical advisers who are qualified occupational physicians who will make the recommendation on whether or not to grant you ill-health benefits.
• If your application is accepted, you must cease employment immediately.
• If your application is accepted and you are in pensionable employment, benefits are due from the day after your last day of pensionable employment.
• If you are accepted after leaving pensionable employment benefits will be due, depending on circumstances, either:

               the day after your last day of pensionable employment;

               the day on which you became incapacitated; or

               the day six months before the date of the last medical report used to accept your                                 application.

• Your pension is paid on the last working day of the month.

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How is my pension and lump sum calculated?

• If you were a member of the NITPS prior to 1 April 2007, your pension is 1/80th of the average salary for each year of pensionable service.
• The lump sum in this circumstance is three times the pension.
• If you became a member of the NITPS on or after 1 April 2007, your pension is 1/60th of the average salary for each year of pensionable service, but you will only receive a lump sum if you decide to commute part of your pension to a lump sum.
• Further information about ‘average salary’ can be found in the Fact Sheet Average salary available on the web site.

I am buying additional pension by instalments, what will happen?

• If you are buying additional pension, and you have not completed the payments then, provided you were in good health when you started to buy the additional pension and have paid for at least 12 months, you will be excused any further contributions.

I am buying past added years and the contribution period is not completed what will happen?

• If you are buying past added years and you have not completed payment, you may be excused the payments due up until your 60th birthday.
• If there is an amount that is due after your 60th birthday, you will be given the option of accepting the service credit based on the payments made or to pay the remaining contributions. If you are intending to use 30% or more of your lump sum to increase your pension benefits, this could result in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs subjecting the whole of your lump sum to a tax charge of 40%. In addition a further 15% surcharge could be due if the proportion of your lump sum that you use exceeds 25% of your pension rights in the scheme.

What happens if I become ill after phased retirement?

• If you have taken phased retirement, then you may receive ill-health benefits based upon your remaining service in the NITPS.

Will my pension be increased each year?

• Your pension will be increased each April in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI).

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Can I return to work?

Returning to teaching

• Ill-health benefits are awarded because you are permanently medically unfit to teach, so if you return to teaching your ill health pension must stop straight away. It is your responsibility to notify TPB immediately of any employment undertaken when in receipt of ill-health benefits.
• If you wish to return to teaching, your employer must be satisfied that you are fit to teach in the capacity required.
• If your pension is stopped, another ill-health pension can only be put back into payment if you become ill again and satisfy the medical advisers that you have again become unfit to teach. You can retire on other grounds at the appropriate age.
• If your re-employment is pensionable, future retirement benefits will be calculated to take account of the extra reckonable service and new salary rates.
• If you are considering returning to teaching, you are advised to inform TPB.

Taking up employment outside teaching

If you are in receipt of a TIB pension and you intend to return to employment outside of teaching and you want your TIB pension to continue, you must provide the Department of Education with a certificate from a registered medical practitioner. This must state that in the opinion of the medical practitioner you still meet the medical condition for TIB to be paid. The nature of your proposed employment will also assist the Department of Education in coming to a decision about whether or not the TIB pension can continue to be paid.

In all cases, TPB will need to know:

• the name and address of your employer;
• the date your employment started;
• the duration, if known;
• the rate of salary;
• the nature of employment (indicating whether it is full or part-time).
• a Job description

If you forget to tell TPB about any employment whilst receiving a pension and you are overpaid, TPB will recover this debt from you.

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