We have produced a set of ill health retirement slides to help you understand the ill health process.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has issued revised statutory guidance on the application of the LGPS ill health retirement regulations for the LGPS2008 and the LGPS2014.

Two sets of guidance were issued in September 2014. Employers and IRMPs must take this guidance in to account when making assessments and giving opinions (IRMPs), and making ill health decisions (employers) under the LGPS regulations.

DCLG guidance document 2014

DCLG guidance document 2008

The DCLG have issued a set of answers to ‘frequently asked questions’ that aim to support LGPS practitioners and IRMPs.

Aimed at leavers under 2014 Scheme Frequently Asked Questions – Ill Health Retirement – 2014 Scheme – Edition 2

Aimed at leavers before 1 April 2014 Frequently Asked Questions Ill Health Retirement – 2008 Scheme - Edition 3

The ill health guide on the LGPS website also has further guidance on this area.

We understand that the latest The Association of Local Authority Medical Advisors (ALAMA) guidance is dated 2005, with the latest update being 2012.

We have our own forms of medical certificates. When referring members for a medical assessment with an approved IRMP, employers should provide IRMPs with the appropriate medical certificates to complete and sign. These are available for employers to download from our online forms section.

Employers should always provide approved IRMPs with the correct, appropriate and latest versions of the medical certificate forms. Therefore, we ask that employers do not stockpile forms but download and print as needed from the employers' website.

To view sample copies, click on each of the forms listed. Guidance notes for completing the forms are also included.

• P72 – Certificate for active members
• P72a – Certificate for deferred beneficiary (ceased membership before 1 April 1998)
• P72b – Certificate for deferred beneficiary (ceased membership on or after 1 April 1998 but before 1 April 2008)
• P72c – Certificate for deferred beneficiary (ceased membership on or after 1 April 2008 but before 1 April 2014)
• P72d – Certificate for deferred beneficiary (ceased membership on or after 1 April 2014)
• P72r(1) – 18 months review and current Tier 3 pensioner request
• P72r(2) – Suspended Tier 3 pensioner where the pension ended within the last three years
• P72r(3) - Suspended Tier 3 pensioner where the pension ended three or more years ago
• P72r(4) – 18 months review
• P72r(5) – Current Tier 3 pensioner request & suspended tier 3 pensioner where the pension ended within the last three years request
• P72r(6) – Suspended Tier 3 pensioner where the pension ended 3 or more years ago
• EM72a – Certificate for a deferred councillor
• P72i – IRMP details form
• P72i(1) – IRMP new request form

A councillor member with benefits on hold who requests their benefits are paid early on ill health grounds must elect for early payment under regulation 31 of the LGPS Regulations 1997.

In ill health cases:

Before deciding this, the employer must get a certificate from an IRMP. The certificate must state whether the former councillor member is, more likely than not, permanently (until age 65) incapable of performing the duties of their former office because of ill health.

The term ‘permanently incapable’ means ‘that the member will, more likely than not, be incapable, until, at the earliest, he turns 65 years of age’.

Deferred benefits payable early on ill health grounds are not enhanced nor are they reduced. Benefits are payable from the date of the election (the date of application).

• the councillor member can elect at any age; and
• the councillor member does not need his or her former employer's consent, but the former employer must decide whether benefits are payable on health grounds.

Regulation 97(9) of the LGPS Regulations 1997 concerns the role of the IRMP. An IRMP provides an opinion on particular questions set out in the scheme rules. It is not their responsibility to make any kind of pension decision.

For best practice:

• An IRMP should not indicate to the member that an ill health award will or will not be made. It is for the employer to make the formal ill health award decision.
• IRMPs are asked to give a written explanation as to why they think a consultation with a member may be necessary or unnecessary as applicable (which may be helpful in the event of a dispute under internal dispute resolution procedure).
• There is nothing in the LGPS rules to prevent an IRMP from deciding to form opinions about members based on written statements. However, it is important that they satisfy themselves that the reports they receive are bona fide.
• IRMPs and employers should bear in mind that members who are aggrieved about a pension decision based on a medical opinion given by an IRMP may be more likely to challenge that decision if they have not been offered a consultation with the IRMP.

The form we require an IRMP to complete for a councillor member with benefits on hold is called an EM72a medical certificate. The former employer completes parts A, D and E and the IRMP completes parts B and C. A sample copy of the EM72a can be found in the forms section.

Where an opinion from an IRMP is requested for a person who has deferred benefits, three questions are involved:

The EM72a medical certificate provides certification for pension benefits and pensions increase.

Members of the LGPS benefit from, under the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971, statutory inflation proofing of their pensions once they become payable, provided qualifying conditions are met. Where a deferred pension is brought into payment early on health grounds under regulation 31, pensions increase can only apply immediately if the pension authority is satisfied that the pensioner is ‘disabled by physical or mental infirmity’. That term means ‘permanently incapacitated by such infirmity from engaging in any regular full time employment’. If this condition is not met, pensions increase is not normally payable until age 55.

• The first relates to the entitlement to pension benefits under the LGPS.
• The second relates to eligibility for pensions increase under the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971.
• The third relates to life expectancy.

A councillor member's retirement pension can be commuted to a single lump sum on grounds of exceptional ill health. The pension authority needs the opinion of an IRMP as to whether the former employee is exceptionally ill, with a life expectancy of less than one year.

If such a payment is made this does not constitute a pension input amount for the purposes of the annual allowance test under the Finance Act 2004 as the person meets the ‘severe ill health condition’ under section 229 of that Act.