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Ill health
In this section
If you become permanently disabled and cannot carry out your role at any point before age 60, you may be able to start to receive your pension from the firefighters’ pension scheme 2015 immediately without reduction.
Were you a member before 2022?
This section gives you details about ill health benefits from the firefighters’ pension scheme 2015. If you also have deferred benefits in one of the other sections of the firefighters’ pension scheme, you should read about what benefits you could also receive from those.
Types of ill health pension
Ill health awards
There are two types of ill health pension:
- Lower tier – awarded if you have been a member of the firefighters’ pension scheme 2015 for at least three months and your illness stops you carrying out your current employment, until normal pension age.
- Higher tier – paid if you have been a member of the firefighters’ pension scheme 2015 for at least five years and your illness stops you carrying out any ‘regular employment’.
What is regular employment?
Regular employment means employment for at least 30 hours a week (averaged over at least 12 consecutive months) beginning with the date where the extent your disability is decided.
An independent qualified medical practitioner will help advise your fire and rescue authority.
Lower tier pension
Taking pension immediately
If you become ill, you may be able to take your pension immediately under the ‘lower tier’ award.
The pension you receive would be paid from the date you became unable to carry out your role and would be based on the benefits you had already built up.
Your pension would be calculated in the same way as a normal pension, but it would not be reduced for early retirement.
You would also have the option to exchange some of your lower tier pension for a lump sum, in the same way you would if you had retired normally.
Higher tier pension
An enhanced payment
If you are eligible for a higher tier pension, the amount you receive would be made up from:
- The pension you had built up to the date you became ill (the same as the lower tier award)
PLUS
- 2% of the pension you have already built up for each year between the date you became ill and age 60.
Example
Higher tier ill health pension
If you had already built up normal pension of £10,000 a year, plus there were 20 years from the date of your ill health retirement and reaching age 60, you would receive:
- The pension you had built up the to date of your ill health retirement(without reduction for being paid early) = £10,000 a year
PLUS
- 2% of the pension you had already built up (£10,000), for each year between the date of your ill health retirement and age 60 (in this example this is 20 years) i.e. 2% x £10,000 x 20 = 4,000 a year.
Total: £10,000 + £4,000 = £14,000 a year
Ill health reviews
Checking on your condition
Your fire and rescue authority, with the help of an independent qualified medical practitioner, will periodically review your health to check that you are still entitled to an ill health pension.
These reviews will take place if you have been receiving an ill health pension for less than ten years and have not reached state pension age.
Your fire and rescue authority will look at whether your condition has changed and if you are able to carry out any duty relating to the role you were retired on health grounds from and, for higher tier ill health pensions, if you have become fit enough to carry out any regular employment.
Returning to work
If your condition has improved enough that you can return to your role as a firefighter, and you are offered a role, then any ill health pension would cease.
The service your ill health pension was based on will still count towards the pension you receive at retirement. If you decide not to return to work, the pension would cease and it would be ‘deferred’ until you reach state pension age. Any enhancements made for the higher tier ill health benefits would not be counted towards future pension build up.
If you were receiving a higher tier pension and are able to return to regular employment (but not your role as a firefighter), the higher tier pension would cease and only the lower tier pension would continue to be paid.
Ill health deferred pension
If you've left the scheme
If you have deferred benefits in the firefighters’ pension scheme 2015 and become incapable of undertaking regular employment and this incapacity will continue at least until state pension age, you may be able to receive your pension earlier.
If you request payment of the pension before your deferred pension age on the grounds of permanent ill health and the scheme manger approves this, the pension would be paid without reduction.