Police Pension Query
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.035337
I note you seek access to the following information:
Please provide information concerning worked examples of police officers of the federated ranks being ill health retired under the 1988 Police pension scheme and the CARE scheme ranging with ages below and above the Compulsory Retirement Ages for their ranks.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.
Please find below information pursuant to your request above.
Please note the MPS had difficulty with this request in part because the request is very broad and, in hindsight, needed to be more defined.
However, due to the delay you have already experienced with this FOIA, HR has provided two examples below. HR have advised that if other examples are required, the specific details/scenarios for those examples are provided.
Example 1
A 39 year old officer with 17 years of service (of which 15 years were in the 1987 scheme and the remaining 2 years in the 2015 scheme) retires on the grounds of ill health. His pensionable salary at retirement is £35,000 per year.
Outcomes are shown for the cases where he retires on lower and upper tier ill health.
Retirement earned pension in respect of service in the 2015 scheme He has a retirement earned pension of £1,300 per year.
Ill-health pension in respect of his service in the 1987 scheme He is entitled to a pension of around £12,800 per year = (7 + 15) x 1/60 x £35,000 based on his salary at retirement, his service in the 1987 scheme, and the method for determining an ill-health pension under the 1987 scheme regulations.
Lower tier ill-health
The total pension payable on lower tier ill-health retirement is his 2015 scheme retirement earned pension plus his pension in respect of his service in the 1987 scheme (calculated above).
His total pension payable immediately is around £14,100 per year (=£1,300 + £12,800).
Upper tier ill-health
The total pension payable on upper tier ill-health is the sum of the lower tier benefit (calculated above) and the enhanced upper tier ill-health pension.
His aggregate period of service is 2 years – for a former 1987 member this is just his 2015 service. As this is less than 5 years, the enhanced upper tier ill-health pension will be the lesser of:
a) £1,300 x 3 = £3,900 per year
b) £35,000/55.3 x ((60-39)/2) = £6,600 per year.
His total pension payable immediately is around £18,000 per year (£1,300 + £12,800 + £3,900).
Example 2
A 39 year old officer with 21 years of service (of which 15 years were in the 1987 scheme and the remaining 6 years in the 2015 scheme) retires on the grounds of ill health. His pensionable salary at retirement is £35,000 per year.
Outcomes are shown for the cases where he retires on lower and upper tier ill health.
Retirement earned pension in respect of service in the 2015 scheme He has a retirement earned pension of £4,000 per year.
Ill-health pension in respect of his service in the 1987 scheme He is entitled to a pension of around £12,800 per year = (7 + 15) x 1/60 x £35,000 based on his salary at retirement, his service in the 1987 scheme, and the method for determining an ill-health pension under the 1987 scheme regulations.
Lower tier ill-health
The total pension payable on lower tier ill-health retirement is his 2015 scheme retirement earned pension plus his pension in respect of his service in the 1987 scheme (calculated above).
His total pension payable immediately is around £16,800 per year (£4,000 + £12,800).
Upper tier ill-health
The total pension payable on upper tier ill-health is the sum of the lower tier benefit (calculated above) and the enhanced upper tier ill-health pension.
His aggregate period of service is 6 years – for a former 1987 member this is just his 2015 service. As this is greater than (or equal to) 5 years, the enhanced upper tier ill health pension will be:
£35,000/55.3 x ((60-39)/2) = £6,600 per year.
His total pension payable immediately is around £23,400 per year (=£4,000 + £12,800 + £6,600).