Deferred members
Overview
You may get requests for a deferred ill-health pension from:
- former employees
- active employees who have opted out of the LGPS
- employees who are current members but also have a deferred pension.
As the former employer, you must consider the member’s capability of fulfilling the job description of the previous role to which their deferred benefit applies with an independent registered medical practitioner.
The referral process for a deferred member is similar to that of active members, however a deferred member can only get their unenhanced deferred benefits. When considering an application from an employee who’s left it’s important you use the right certificate according to when the member left the LGPS.
If the member making the request is still enrolled in the scheme through an active employment, and/or holds a separate deferred benefit, each benefit will need to be dealt with separately. Each employer has to make their own decision about the relevant employment.
You can find an overview of the ill-health process for deferred and active members in our flowchart.
Detailed guidance
Employers must get the opinion of an independent registered medical practitioner (IMRP), who’s been pre-approved by the Pension Fund before referring the member for assessment. The criteria for paying a deferred pension for ill-health are simpler than for an active member. As a deferred member can only be given unenhanced benefits, there are no decisions to be made over which tier of pension to apply. So, if the IMRP signs the certificate to say that the deferred member meets the medical requirements, then awarding the member their deferred benefits as a pension is straight forward.
You can find more information on making ill-health decisions and processing a referral to an independent doctor on our ill health resources page. Specifically:
- Guidance note 2: Processing an ill-health pension case
- Guidance note 4: Ill-health deferred benefits into payment.
