MONEY
Pension Consequences Of A Medical Discharge
T
he number of enquiries surrounding medical discharges handled by the Forces Pension Society seems
to have increased quite significantly of late. Lieutenant Commander David Marsh of the Forces Pension Society looks at this subject from an ill-health pension point of view and highlights some of the lesser known qualification requirements needed to be eligible for these awards.
You’ve just been informed by the Medical Board that you are to be discharged from the Armed Forces because your medical condition makes your future employment in the Services no longer possible. What, if anything, are you likely to receive from your Armed Forces occupational pension scheme?
To begin with I should point out that there is quite a difference between your occupational pension scheme and the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and War Pension Scheme. Space permits me to deal only with the Armed Forces Pension Scheme.
It is said that a picture paints a thousand words, and so the easiest way to see what is payable for either AFPS05 or AFPS75 is to look at the table below. In the case of both schemes entitlement to Invalidity Benefits from your occupational pension scheme are only payable if you have completed at least two years’ reckonable service.
32 Envoy Summer 2013
The AFPS05 pension scheme has three Tiers of award and a simple definition of each Tier is as follows: Tier One Your medical condition prevents you from doing your job in the Armed Forces but is not sufficiently bad enough to prevent you from obtaining gainful employment in the Private sector.
Tier Two Your medical condition is not sufficiently severe that you are left permanently incapable of gainful employment, but your prospects of a solid second career are significantly impaired.
Tier Three Your medical condition is such that it is considered you will be permanently incapable of any further full time employment.
To help you link each Tier with the Tariff levels used by the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, each Tier is effectively equivalent to:
Tier One Tier Two
Tier Three
Tariffs 12-15 Tariffs 7-11 Tariffs 1-6
Remember, the formulas in the table opposite demonstrate what financial rewards are payable to you from your particular occupational pension scheme on the basis of a medical discharge, whether the cause is due to, or aggravated by, your service in the Armed Forces. If it transpires
that your medical discharge was because of, or aggravated by, your service in the Armed Forces, then these payments will be supplemented by awards from either the War Pension Scheme or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme – whichever is applicable to you (it could, in some circumstances, even be both).
If you find that you are in the position of a potential medical discharge and you want to have some idea of the award you could receive from your pension scheme you should contact the JPAC for an assessment of potential payments due to you. If you are unhappy with the response you receive; would like a second opinion, or merely an independent assessment of potential death benefits payable to your dependants, you can, if you are a member, obtain one from the Forces Pension Society, www.
ForcesPensionSociety.org or call 020 7820 9988.
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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