ill health retirement

[points1962]

My hubby has worked for royal mail for 25+ years
He is currently been signed off on the sick since last summer
He had his 4th face to face appointment with atos a fortnight ago (he has had quite a few telephone appointments with them over the last few months )
This time they are recommending ill health retirement
The dr he saw said that that would be sending in their report that day
My question is should he have heard from his manager or at least someone from royal mail advising him of the next step
or does he need to contact them himself?

[stokes11eg]

when the recommedation comes through, the DOM should then consult with your husband, and explain fully what the offer is, and remember, you do not have to accept the offer, it is open to negotiation.Normally, you would have expected the eport to comethrough quite quickly, but if the DOM is doing his job properly, he should present the offer in written form which does take a bit of time to prepare. No harm in your hubby asking now how long it will take. Good Luck

[easter bunny]

There is a ill health agreement which has been endorsed by Royal Mail and the CMA/CWU. So to say you can start to negotiate is not true at all.
The result of your husbands case will end up in one of these conclusions.

ill health retirement with lump sum ( about 43 weeks pay)

ill health retirement with pension

Other alternative work

There are appeals if either of the findings are not acceptable, however medical evidence will be needed.

Your best result would be ill health retirement with pension ( your pension will be increased depending on age/service ). However the medical evidence has to decide if you are unable to work for 10 years.

Any questions get back to me..

[gj1023]

I have just been medically retired (28 May ) after 35 years, I spent 8 months for Atos to sort themselves out. They sent me 5 consent forms in one month, did not receive reports etc. Then when they had all the info, they made me wait another weeks for a final phone intervew. The Atos person rang me to discuss things , then rang me back 15 min later, to read me his report. When I said was happy with it, he sent it there and then to RM. (via email)

I gave RM a week to get back to me and nothing, so rang my guv and he was sick (doh). So text my union rep and had a call from RM, within a hour. I had to go for a final interview with a guv , who dealt with ill health retirement, before final decision was made. Within days I had a SD from him, saying I was being offered Ill retirement with immediate pension and financial details. (also a appeals form, if I did not aggree)

I signed it returned it and awaiting for my pension pack

Hope my experience helps

[points1962]

It took to July for any response to arrive from Royal Mail and it only came after hubby got a union rep involved
He was offered ill health retirement with a lump sum (34 weeks pay + holiday pay + 12 weeks PILOL)
I assumed a share payment would arrived with the above
Anyhow he deceided to appeal for his pension
He notified his manager within the allocated 7 days (end of july)
No response until last week when union rep got involved again
His file was most likely in some in-tray waiting for someone to deal with it
He saw another atos doctor today who has recommended that he is unlikely to work either for royal mail or any other employer in the next 10 years
He was going to email his report over to the manager involved today
I understand this to mean he should get his pension so its a good result
My question is do Royal Mail ever go against an atos doctors recommendation?
and how long does it take them to sort out the pensions? his last day of service is next week
Thankyou in advance for any help

[easter bunny]

It took to July for any response to arrive from Royal Mail and it only came after hubby got a union rep involved
He was offered ill health retirement with a lump sum (34 weeks pay + holiday pay + 12 weeks PILOL)
I assumed a share payment would arrived with the above
Anyhow he deceided to appeal for his pension
He notified his manager within the allocated 7 days (end of july)
No response until last week when union rep got involved again
His file was most likely in some in-tray waiting for someone to deal with it
He saw another atos doctor today who has recommended that he is unlikely to work either for royal mail or any other employer in the next 10 years
He was going to email his report over to the manager involved today
I understand this to mean he should get his pension so its a good result
My question is do Royal Mail ever go against an atos doctors recommendation?
and how long does it take them to sort out the pensions? his last day of service is next week
Thankyou in advance for any help

That really is excellent news.. The RM Manager should accept the recommendation from ATOS so I cannot see you having a problem over it.. Good for you in appealing over it..
A lot of employees accept the payment then when its to late regret it wishing they would have pushed it a little further..

As for the Pension, RM will automatically contact the Pension Centre on your last day of service (which is not including the notice period ) a week or so later they will inform you what your Pension ( which is increased ) will be and depending on what scheme you are in how much tax free lump sum you wisah to take...
The Pension Centre always say the whole procudure will take 12 weeks, however its more like 4-6 weeks..Also send all paperwork back to Chesterfielld by SD which sppeds things up a bit..
Finally, IHR with lump sum is just 34 weeks pay ( the notice period/shares/holidays is also paid with IHR with Pension)....Its hell of a difference....

[points1962]

Thanks for your reply it was helpful
As for appealing as long as we could get the backing from either our GP or hospital consultant (which we did) what was there to lose..... it would hopefully result in either a pension or the lump sum (which they had already offered)
However I can understand why people do not appeal, I should imagine after 6-12months dealing with an illness and atos they are glad to leave royal mail with a few thousand in their bank accounts and just can't be bothered with any more hassle

[hunnybunny73]

There is a ill health agreement which has been endorsed by Royal Mail and the CMA/CWU. So to say you can start to negotiate is not true at all.
The result of your husbands case will end up in one of these conclusions.

ill health retirement with lump sum ( about 43 weeks pay)

ill health retirement with pension

Other alternative work

There are appeals if either of the findings are not acceptable, however medical evidence will be needed.

Your best result would be ill health retirement with pension ( your pension will be increased depending on age/service ). However the medical evidence has to decide if you are unable to work for 10 years.

Any questions get back to me..

if your partner gets il;l health retirement with lump sum he'll get roughly £19000 , partner got it last year after 20 years in the job, what you really want is retired with immediate pension but this is only paid if your disease or illness is expected to last over ten years

[points1962]

Hubby got a letter from Royal Mail which said he had won his appeal and would be getting ill health retirement with an immediate pension .
The letter said that his details had been sent to the pension dept & we should hear from them in a few weeks
There were no thankyou's for giving them nearly 30 years of his life but who cares they gave him his pension

[easter bunny]

Hubby got a letter from Royal Mail which said he had won his appeal and would be getting ill health retirement with an immediate pension .
The letter said that his details had been sent to the pension dept & we should hear from them in a few weeks
There were no thankyou's for giving them nearly 30 years of his life but who cares they gave him his pension

Excellent news..Well done...