Tier 3 reviews
Overview
You must review a tier 3 pension after it’s been paid for 18 months. If you find that the member is now capable of undertaking ‘gainful employment’, the pension would be suspended.
If the member was still incapable of undertaking gainful employment, in certain circumstances, their pension can continue to be paid for up to three years from the date their employment ceased.
No further reviews are needed but you can review the case again in light of new medical evidence. It’s also possible after the review for employers to award tier 2 benefits, although you’d need another medical opinion to support this decision.
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 IMRP can be the same the same practitioner who provided the original certificate.
Detailed guidance
The key decisions you need to make at the 18 month review are to:
- continue payment of tier 3 benefits for the remainder of the three year period
- cease benefits if it can be determined that the member is now capable of undertaking ‘gainful employment’
- upgrade benefits to tier 2 if:
- the member is permanently incapable of discharging the duties of the employment they were engaged in, and either is unlikely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment:
- before normal pension age
- within 3 years of leaving the employment, but is likely to be able to undertake gainful employment before reaching normal pension age.
You can find more information on when and how you should review tier 3 pensions on our ill health resources page. Specifically:
- Guidance note 3A: Before 1 April 2014 retirements
- Guidance note 3B: After 31 March 2014 retirements.
