Work and payroll issues

Don’t rely on hoping your ill health pension will kick in straight away.
I too was medically retired from the NHS; it took three years for my pension to be paid.

Also don’t forget your annual leave pay – that too is paid as a lump sum and will affect your benefit.

Also if they have overpaid you they have no right to take the money back as a lump sum, you can request that they take it back in instalments affordable to you.

As others have said deal with the director of HR and put everything in writing, copy in your Head of Nursing, Modern matron and Manager.


Best of luck.

Hi Martha,

Sorry to hear that your NHS Pension took so long to be paid to you, there must have been a problem. ?

My wife Pat (pata1) who also moderates here got hers within about two months or so.

However, as a qualified WRO I handled the best part of the claim, and was even allowed to sit in with her when she was examined by the hospital's Occupation Health Doctor.

My wife had to retire as a Staff Nurse due to contracting a hepatitis virus from a patient which led to her now having chronic autoimmune hepatitis.

Due to poor representation from her union, which I can't name for legal reasons, she received no compensation, whilst 4 other nurses in a different union got compensation.

However, I did fight and won to get her Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit from the DWP, and after a 3 years fight, succeeded in getting her NHS Permanent Injury Allowance which boosted her pension, by nearly £500 pcm, when she came off IB when she reached 60 last year and moved onto state pension.

Best of luck.

Jim

I had already applied for ESA and set the date from which it was to start, before i knew that my SSP should have ended months before.

Can i still backdate it now?

I have informed my union (RCN) and they are being so slow at doing anything. I have my first meeting with them in 2 weeks!

I REALLY hope my pension doesn't atke 3 years to come through!!

What do you mean about annual leave pay??

Hi lollo,
What I meant by annual leave: If you are absent from duty due to ill-health you will continue to accrue entitlement to paid annual leave when
you are in a period of ‘half-sick pay’. Annual leave will not accrue when
you are in a no-pay situation.

So if you went off sick in April and your non pay started in Nov you will be entitled to your annual leave entitlement between these dates. So in your final pay they will have to pay you these days on top of your wage as a lump sum.

Does that make sense? because you are sick you haven’t taken any time off but you still accrued holiday entitlement that you need paying for.

Can you get hold of a copy of your sickness and absence policy or your contract it will probably explain it better than me.

Hi Jim,
I think my problem was “The decision to grant ill-health retirement rests solely with the Pensions Agency.”

Although the NHS medically retired me the pensions agency wanted me to prove I was permanently disabled before paying out. (that old chestnut)

I had a car accident, and from my injuries developed reflex sympathetic dystrophy or complex regional pain syndrome as it is now known, CRAP to those familiar or suffer from it.

The pension people wanted to wait to see if I ‘recovered’. I was too ill to fight (in hospital for four years)
It is now 10 years later and I still haven’t recovered but I am back at work.

Hi Martha, I'm so sorry to hear you were in hospital for so long, how did you cope? Two days is my maximum and I found that hard going!

Best wishes,
Rachel

Hi Rachel ,
Gosh that’s such a hard question to answer, not that I don’t want to, I just don’t know how to… I blocked out most of it .. the only thing that really stood out was the surgeon saying to me forget about work, (I worked with him )home and family and concentrate on me for at least two years.. not easy but he was right .. I just went into survival mode.. I wanted to live and I wanted my family and eventually I wanted to go back to work. I lost it all for those years but I have it all back now. i may not be healthy but im happy.