Pensions action: appeal to ill-health retired officers

18 August 2020

Officers who have left the Force after taking ill-health retirement are being urged to get in touch with the Police Federation as it prepares its group action over the discrimination found in the transitional arrangements put in place with the introduction of the 2015 Police Pension Scheme.

More than 43,000 officers have applied to join the action but the Police Federation of England and Wales, having reviewed the applications after the original 31 July deadline, has discovered that none came from ill-health retired officers.

Steve Grange, secretary of West Midlands Police Federation, says that many of these officers could be eligible for the compensation claim and is urging members to contact any former colleagues who retired due to ill-health to make them aware of the group action.

“We want to make sure that all eligible officers and former officers know about this claim so they can consider if they want to apply to join,” says Steve.

“We have had contact from a few ill-health retired officers who have wanted to discuss their eligibility but it may well be that there are others who are unaware of the group action or maybe have not had access to the link to the application.

“If any member is in touch with a former colleague who took ill-health retirement I would ask them to bring this claim to their attention.

“We will also try to contact all officers we have supported during an ill-health retirement process and will seek the help of the pensions department in finding details of others but we are conscious that we may not have the up to date contact information for all those who could be eligible.”

The Federation has now further extended its deadline for applications to the end of Thursday 27 August to allow time for the message to reach these former officers. Serving officers can also take advantage of the extended deadline if they wish to apply to join the action.

Retired and serving officers who want to apply are urged to click here to email Steve Grange by email for more information.