Police retirement in ill health
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.035178
I note you seek access to the following information:
The 1987 Police Pension legacy scheme makes references to the enhancement available in the scheme when an officer is ill health retired on medical grounds but needs some clarity as it does not expand sufficiently to provide worked examples.
Can you provide the simple formula used by your forces pensions branch showing how the 1/60’s are established for this hypothetical officer below:
Can you confirm if a police officer has 25yrs 6 months total pensionable service composed of 23 years 6months in the 1987 scheme and 2 years in the CARE 2015 scheme and is subsequently approved for ill health retirement on medical grounds is the calculation applied in the following order sequence?
Can you confirm as this officer has more than 13 years service is the 7/60th’s applied first, thus establishing the baseline due to being medically retired?
Can you confirm if the next stage is to add 20/60th’s for the next twenty years pensionable service making a total of 27/60?
Can you confirm that the next stage will be 2/60th will be added for each of the subsequent years between years 20 & 30 as these are double accrual which makes the 3 yrs 6 mths equivalent to 7/60?
Can you confirm that the final overall total of 34/60’s is the correct answer to this scenario?
Is this the correct computational method that would be applied?
Can you confirm that all 7/60’s enhancement available would be applied in full as reference is made within the 1987 guide that the resultant pension must not be greater than the age retirement pension that could be achieved at the normal pension age of 55 or age 60 in the case of inspector or above.
Is this statement now obsolete as the Compulsory Retirement Ages (CRA) appears to be referencing where they used to be age 55 for Constable & Sergeants with that for inspectors being 60 but now for all federated ranks the CRA in the 1987 Scheme was removed in 2006 and is now defined to be 60 years old?
Can you clarify if there would be any adverse consequences if the police officer in the above scenarios was an inspector being ill health retired on medical grounds?
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.
Please find below information pursuant to your request above.
Can you provide the simple formula used by your forces pensions branch showing how the 1/60’s are established for this hypothetical officer below:
Q1 - Can you confirm if a police officer has 25yrs 6 months total pensionable service composed of 23 years 6months in the 1987 scheme and 2 years in the CARE 2015 scheme and is subsequently approved for ill health retirement on medical grounds is the calculation applied in the following order sequence?
The order is not relevant per se, but it is practical to apply the enhancement at the end of the calculation as this enhancement can be capped – the regulations state that the enhancement to benefits upon ill health retirement cannot exceed the accrual/60ths an officer would have reached had they continued to serve until their original Compulsory Retirement Age, these ages are/were as follows:
Met Police
Age 55 for all ranks below Commander
Age 57 for Commanders & Deputy Assistant Commissioners
Age 60 for Assistant Commissioners
Other Police Forces
Age 55 for Constables and Sergeants
Age 60 for Inspectors to Chief Superintendents
Age 65 for any ranks above
Q2 - Can you confirm as this officer has more than 13 years service is the 7/60’s applied first, thus establishing the baseline due to being medically retired?
Whilst the order is irrelevant I can confirm that an enhancement of 7/60ths would apply for an officer that had 13 or more year’s service within the 1987 Police Pension Scheme (1987 PPS) – subject to the capping as explained above.
Q3 - Can you confirm if the next stage is to add 20/60th’s for the next twenty years pensionable service making a total of 27/60?
Agree the 20/60ths for the first 20 years, the enhancement would be up to a maximum of 7/60ths subject to the capping as explained above.
Q4 - Can you confirm that the next stage will be 2/60th will be added for each of the subsequent years between years 20 & 30 as these are double accrual which makes the 3 yrs 6 mths equivalent to 7/60th?
Agreed
Q5 - Can you confirm that the final overall total of 34/60th’s is the correct answer to this scenario?
Agreed, assuming the enhancement is not capped
Is this the correct computational method that would be applied?
Q6 - Can you confirm that all 7/60th’s enhancement available would be applied in full as reference is made within the 1987 guide that the resultant pension must not be greater than the age retirement pension that could be achieved at the normal pension age of 55 or age 60 in the case of inspector or above.
The 7/60ths would be subject to capping as explained above.
Q7 - Is this statement now obsolete as the Compulsory Retirement Ages (CRA) appears to be referencing where they used to be age 55 for Constable & Sergeants with that for inspectors being 60 but now for all federated ranks the CRA in the 1987 Scheme was removed in 2006 and is now defined to be 60 years old?
No it is not obsolete, as all capping is based on the original CRAs. The fact CRAs changed and were then even removed is irrelevant.
Q8 - Can you clarify if there would be any adverse consequences if the police officer in the above scenarios was an inspector being ill health retired on medical grounds?
If an officer is subject to capping, the rank of an officer would/could affect the capping.