Ill health retirement in the civil service pension

Civil service ill health retirement turns on the scheme's medical adviser's opinion. It pays one of two tiers, depending on whether you can do any work.

If illness is ending your civil service career, the pension you have built up can be paid straight away, with no early-payment reduction. For serving members that means alpha, and the rules below are the scheme's own. Your employer's HR team starts the process, and the scheme's member pages explain each step. If you would rather hear it explained aloud, an FCA-authorised adviser with room for your other pensions can ring you without charge; a civil servant need only use the form on this page.

Is ill health retirement in alpha or the older civil service sections?

Alpha. The Civil Service Pension Scheme's own annual account says that all the older arrangements, known together as the PCSPS, "closed to future accrual on 31 March 2022", and "All remaining PCSPS members in service were moved to Alpha on 1 April 2022 for future pensions accrual". So a serving member claiming ill health retirement now does so under alpha's rules, whichever of classic, classic plus, premium or nuvos they were in earlier.

Service built up in those older sections is not lost; it is treated separately, as described further down. The partnership scheme, the money-purchase option, can also pay ill health benefits if the breakdown in health is judged permanent and the member cannot do their own job or a comparable one.

For how the sections differ in general, see which civil service pension scheme is best.

Who qualifies for civil service ill health retirement?

The scheme sets two conditions. First you need "enough qualifying service to be eligible for a pension", which it explains as having worked for an employer offering the civil service pension arrangements and "been a member for at least two years". Second, your health must, in the opinion of the Scheme Medical Adviser (SMA), "permanently prevent you from being able to do your current job or any other similar role".

"Permanent" has a specific meaning here: it means until you reach your predicted State Pension age, and the SMA takes planned changes to that age into account. The scheme's appeals guide adds that "prevents" means a significant incapacity, not being unwilling or finding work inconvenient. Employers go ahead only if workplace adjustments are, on balance, unreasonable or unfeasible.

Two limits apply. Once you have reached your alpha Normal Pension Age (NPA) you are no longer eligible for ill health terms. And if you have already taken partial retirement you can only receive the lower tier, even if you would otherwise meet the upper tier test. Ordinary early retirement has its own guide.

How do you apply through your employer?

You start with your employer, usually your manager or HR department. Both of you complete sections of the scheme's ill health retirement application form, including your permission for the SMA to contact your doctor and any specialists. Your employer then sends the application to the SMA with information about your job and any health details it holds, including your sickness record.

The SMA is a third-party organisation, appointed by the Scheme Manager to give independent medical advice, and may invite you to an assessment. If the SMA grants ill health retirement it sends your employer a certificate stating which tier you meet. Your employer sets the retirement date and tells the scheme administrator, who sends a quote and claim forms; nothing is paid until you return them.

What do the lower tier and upper tier pay?

The lower tier is for someone permanently unable to do their own job or a similar role; the upper tier, for someone permanently unable to work in any kind of employment. The appeals guide sharpens the upper line: functional ability for any reasonable paid work should be impaired by more than 90 per cent.

The lower tier pension is the alpha pension built up to date, plus added pension bought and any transfers in. All of it is paid "without any reduction for early payment". One catch: added pension bought by lump sum in the year before you retire, or a transfer in that happened less than two years before, may be preserved instead of paid at once, and is reduced if you claim it early.

The upper tier is the lower tier pension plus an enhancement. The scheme works it out in two steps. Your alpha pension at the ill health retirement date is divided by your years of membership, giving the average amount you added each year. That average is then multiplied by the number of years from retirement to your predicted NPA, or to the end of a fixed-term contract if you are on one. The result is added to the lower tier pension.

You can also choose a tax-free lump sum, up to a limit shown on your quote, though taking one reduces the pension; see the civil service lump sum and tax on ill health pensions. If the SMA's certificate lands beside a partner's earnings, an FCA-authorised adviser with time to spare for your tier and income can phone after a request on the call-back form here, free.

What happens to classic, premium, classic plus and nuvos service?

If you moved from one of those sections to alpha, you have two parts to your pension. Under alpha's regulations the older part is not paid as a pension at the time you retire on ill health. Instead you receive a payment equal in value to it, alongside the alpha part, and the scheme says that payment is not reduced for early payment either. It is not enhanced, though it is adjusted in line with prices once in payment.

When you reach the Normal Pension Age of the older section, usually 60 or 65, the actual pension replaces that payment automatically. The lump sum option comes once, at the date you retire. If you chose to transfer out the older part before its NPA, the payment for it would stop and your total pension would fall to the alpha part alone.

Provisional awards and five-yearly reviews

If the SMA cannot decide whether your condition is permanent, it can recommend a provisional award at the tier it judges most appropriate, with a review date up to five years later. If it recommends reducing or removing the pension you get three months' notice, and an increase is backdated to the review date. You can appeal a decision to change a provisional award, and will normally need new medical evidence.

A lower tier pension is paid for life. An upper tier pension is reviewed by the SMA at least every five years until you reach your alpha NPA, and if your health has improved so that you no longer meet the upper tier conditions it changes to the lower tier, again with three months' notice. On returning to work, see working after ill health retirement.

What if the SMA says no?

You can appeal a refusal, or a decision to award only the lower tier. The process has three stages, though reaching the third is not automatic. At stage one you appeal in writing on form APP1, returned to your employer, within three months of your employer notifying you of the SMA's report. A relative, friend or trade union representative can appeal for you, with your consent, if you are too unwell.

A physician looks at your evidence plus anything new. You can appeal without new evidence, but the guide says that makes it unlikely the case can go beyond stage two, and finding and paying for further evidence is up to you, not your employer. At stage two a senior physician with no earlier involvement checks whether there is a reasonable case. If doubt remains, the case goes to an independent Medical Appeal Board for a clinical interview or assessment, and you may bring a relative, friend or union official. A successful appeal pays benefits backdated if your service ended before the appeal concluded.

Where the Board upholds an award at the lower tier, its assessment is final, with no further medical appeal. For free help with a dispute, free ill health retirement advice lists who to ask.

If you are terminally ill

Marie Curie (0800 090 2309) offers support on terminal illness, and the charity says you can "access this information and support for free online, in print and by talking to us over the phone".

If your doctors confirm, and the SMA agrees, that your life expectancy is less than 12 months, you can ask to exchange all of your pension benefits for a one-off lump sum. The scheme says it is five times your annual pension, you will receive no further annual pension if you take it, and dependants' pensions are unaffected. It also warns the total you receive "may be higher" if you do not choose these terms. The request must be made before any pension payments begin, and it is open to active members and to those with a preserved pension. For how tax treats such payments, see tax on ill health pensions.

Already left the civil service, or affected by McCloud?

Under alpha, members who have left with a preserved pension have no ill health retirement option. They can still claim a preserved pension early for ill health once past the minimum pension age, with the usual early-payment reduction. That age is normally 55 and, from 6 April 2028, rises to 57 unless you have a protected minimum pension age; see protected pension ages and the ill health age rules. Former classic members have a separate route, early payment of a preserved award, if their health breaks down after leaving and before scheme pension age, likely permanently.

The McCloud remedy also reaches ill health cases. The Cabinet Office's August 2023 consultation response said anyone who applied during the remedy period, including those refused, would have the case reviewed by the SMA against both the older and the alpha criteria. A member who left for health reasons without a formal referral gets no automatic review, but can claim through the contingent decisions process. For the wider remedy, see the civil service McCloud remedy. Cases caught up in the remedy period can be fiddly, so the call-back form here may help: an FCA-authorised adviser with time for it can ring, free of charge, to go through it with you.

Civil service ill health retirement questions

How do I find out what my ill health pension would be?

The arithmetic is set out under the tier amounts above, and the figure that counts arrives in the quote sent once the SMA has decided.

Is the test the same as in other public schemes?

No, each has its own wording and tiers. Compare the NHS and LGPS rules, or start from ill health retirement in the UK.

Does ill health ever pay the whole pension as a lump sum?

Only in the terminal illness case above. Otherwise see cashing in a pension because of ill health.

Before you speak to HR

Note when you joined, whether you have older-section service, and ask HR for the application form. When HR's quote arrives, you may want it set beside everything else you receive, and an FCA-authorised adviser with time to spare can do that by phone once the call-back form here is complete.

Sources: Civil Service Pension Scheme, alpha ill-health retirement guide (Section 05D) and Medical reviews and appeals guide; Cabinet Office, Civil Superannuation annual account 2024 to 2025 and 2015 Remedy consultation response; Marie Curie. All read in October and November 2026.