ME Association: New Leaflet: Pensions – obtaining an ill-health pension, prognosis & permanency in ME/CFS

[John Mac]

Extracts:
All employees have a right to ask their employer to make reasonable adjustments to ensure they are not disadvantaged at work due to a medical condition or disability.

And if these adjustments make it possible to continue working, taking early retirement is not going to be an option.

However, there are situations where adjustments are far more difficult to make – in which case taking a pension earlier than anticipated is an option that may need to be considered.

Ill health retirement – also known as being ‘medically retired’ – is when you draw your pension before the age of 55 (or the scheme’s ordinary retirement date) due to ongoing ill health or disability.

To be successful a decision will normally be based on the fact that you can no longer continue to work in your normal job, or one that seriously reduces your earning potential…

When it comes to decisions about early retirement on the grounds of permanent ill health in ME/CFS this can be a fairly straightforward process. However, for some people it soon becomes clear that all kinds of hurdles are being erected in order to delay making an early payment.

https://meassociation.org.uk/2020/1...ealth-pension-prognosis-permanency-in-me-cfs/

 

[bicentennial]

https://meassociation.org.uk/2020/1...ealth-pension-prognosis-permanency-in-me-cfs/

This 2020 article gave an old link to buy the leaflet. But that page is no longer to be found.

This new link gives the leaflet for free:

December 2020
by Dr Charles Shepherd, Trustee and Hon Medical Adviser
Myalgic Encehalopathy Association (MEA)

Obtaining an Ill-Health Pension, Prognosis and Permanency

I don't think it was updated since 2020. It applies to pension policies, but it does not mention the state pension, and I cannot find any reference to this early retirement entitlement in the current Disability Rights Handbook.

It is a 7-page leaflet so it should be thoroughly informative.

 

[bicentennial]

It is a 7-page leaflet so it should be thoroughly informative.

At the time of writing, Britain was still adjusting to a preview of the current ME/CFS Guideline, which was by then determined to exclude various favored rehabilitation theories, nevertheless still misused to disqualify people who were too ill to work.

This leaflet is filed under Education & Employment, on the Free Literature page, which also has a list of Disability Benefit leaflets. And there is a page for buying Books.

Before a medical retirement, there are questions of adjustment at work to enable work, or ways to recuperate enough to work.

After some time of this illness it is reasonable to consider, properly, an evidenced application for necessary medical retirement