PART 1Membership, contributions and benefits
Ill-health retirement
Early payment of retirement pension on ill-health grounds: deferred and deferred pensioner members38
1
A deferred member who, because of ill-health or infirmity of mind or body—
a
becomes permanently incapable of discharging efficiently the duties of the employment that member was engaged in at the date the member became a deferred member, and
b
is unlikely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment before normal pension age, or for at least three years, whichever is the sooner,
may ask to receive payment of a retirement pension whatever the member's age.
2
A request under paragraph (1) must be made in writing to the deferred member's former Scheme employer or appropriate administering authority where the member's former Scheme employer has ceased to be a Scheme employer.
3
Before determining whether or not to agree to a request under paragraph (1), the deferred member's former Scheme employer, or administering authority, as the case may be, must obtain a certificate from an IRMP as to whether the member is suffering from a condition that renders the member—
a
permanently incapable of discharging efficiently the duties of the employment the member was engaged in because of ill-health or infirmity of mind or body; and, if so,
b
whether as a result of that condition the member is unlikely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment before reaching normal pension age, or for at least three years, whichever is the sooner.
4
A deferred pensioner member who, because of ill-health or infirmity of mind or body, is unlikely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment before normal pension age, may ask to receive payment of a retirement pension at any time before the member's normal pension age.
5
A request under paragraph (4) must be made to the deferred pensioner member's former Scheme employer, or appropriate administering authority where the member's former Scheme employer has ceased to be a Scheme employer.
6
Before determining whether to agree to a request under paragraph (4), the deferred pensioner member's former Scheme employer, or administering authority, as the case may be, must obtain a certificate from an IRMP as to whether the member, as a result of ill-health or infirmity of mind or body, is unlikely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment before normal pension age.
7
If the Scheme employer is not the deferred or deferred pensioner member's appropriate administering authority, it must obtain that authority's consent to the appointment of an IRMP under this regulation.
8
An IRMP appointed under paragraph (6) may be the same IRMP who provided the first certificate under regulation 36(1) (role of the IRMP).