If you're suffering Ill Health, you have options

As an active member of an NHS (Scotland) pension scheme you may qualify for a pension if you're suffering from serious ill health. If you've been a member of your pension scheme for more than two years and you’re permanently unable to work to your normal pension age due to ill health or injury you could qualify for ill health retirement.

The level of pension awarded to you in these circumstances will depend on the severity of your condition and your potential for employment in the future.

If you feel that you potentially meet these circumstances you should, take a look at our Ill Health retirement section before approaching your employer to discuss whether they would support your claim for ill-health retirement.

What happens to your NHS pension when you die?

The pension accumulated from your service with the NHS in Scotland offers a number of valuable benefits to your surviving family members when you die. 

If you hold benefits in more than one section of the NHS (Scotland) scheme, death in service benefits are only based on the regulations that apply to the most recent scheme you’ve been active in. Any survivor benefits that are based upon service within a previous scheme will be calculated separately.

IMPORTANT: The NHS Injury Benefits scheme ONLY deals with claims for injuries or illnesses that took place or were contracted BEFORE 31 March 2013. For more recent claims, contact your NHS Employer’s HR department and ask them about the current NHS Injury Allowance scheme.

What is the NHS Injury Benefit Scheme?

The NHS Injury Benefit Scheme helps people whose ability to earn a living has been compromised due to either an injury or an illness sustained in the course of their employment with the NHS.

This particular scheme only covers claims for injuries and illnesses that date back to BEFORE 31 March 2013 and will be closed to new injury benefit applications from 31 March 2038.

Who’s eligible to make a claim?

The scheme covers most people employed by the NHS in Scotland before 31 March 2013. There are a few exceptions, however, such as: agency staff; GP and dental practice staff; GP and dental locums; most Direction Body employees; reservists and; staff working for a private or public limited company that provides a service to the NHS. If you’re unsure if you qualify, get in touch, you’ll find our contact details below.

Key qualification requirements

• The injury or illness must have been sustained or contracted as a direct result of your employment with the NHS before 31 March 2013
• You must be able to provide evidence of the delayed onset of your symptoms that meant an application was not necessary before 30 March 2018
• Any injury cannot be as a result of a normal journey travelling to or from work – except for community nurses who may be entitled
• Your symptoms cannot be connected to going off sick as a result of work-related investigations or disciplinary action
• Your injury or disease cannot be wholly or mainly due to (or seriously aggravated by) your own culpable negligence or misconduct.

What are the scheme benefits?

If your application is approved, the NHS Injury Benefit Scheme can provide a number of different types of payments to meet your circumstances.

Temporary Injury Benefit

Temporary Injury Benefit is paid if you’re on certified sick leave with reduced pay or no pay.

It tops up your income to 85% of the average pay you were receiving before it was reduced as a result of the injury or illness.

Temporary Injury Benefit is not payable if your total income (including any pay and relevant Department of Work and Pensions benefits) is more than 85% of your average pay.

Temporary Injury Benefit stops when you return to work or leave NHS employment. It’s also subject to income tax and National Insurance deductions but not pension contribution deductions.

Permanent Injury Benefit

Permanent Injury Benefit applies if your ability to earn a living has been permanently reduced by more than 10% as a result of your injury or illness. This permanent reduction could be because of the following reasons:

• you’ve had a permanent reduction in the number of hours you can work
• you’ve had to permanently move to a lower paid NHS job
• you’ve had to leave your NHS employment.

Our NHS Injury Benefit Scheme Factsheet provides details of the levels of benefits that could be provided depending on your unique circumstances.

Death Benefits

Surviving partners and dependants may receive a percentage of the former employee’s average pay as a top up to another payment such as an NHS adult dependant’s pension.

Our NHS Injury Benefit Scheme Factsheet provides details of the levels of benefits that could be provided depending on your unique circumstances.

How are benefits calculated?

When calculating the level of benefit you (or your dependants) can receive, other sources of income will be taken into account. These include any NHS pension payments or other NHS-related income, certain personal pensions and any Department for Work and Pensions’ benefits paid in respect of the injury or illness.

Damages and compensation

Any damages or compensation you receive for the injury or illness can affect the level of benefits you receive from the scheme. This can include you having to pay back some (or all) of the NHS Injury Benefits already paid or a reduction in future payments.

If you are claiming damages or compensation you should inform your legal advisor that you’re claiming or receiving NHS Injury Benefits and ask them to look at the NHS Scotland Injury Benefit Regulations. If you’re applying for or receiving NHS Injury Benefits you must inform SPPA as soon as any damages or compensation claim is settled.

How to apply

It’s worth reading the accompanying factsheet before you apply and, if necessary, checking your eligibility with us. Once you’re ready to make your application (or to apply for a Death Benefit on behalf of someone else) simply download and complete the NHS Injury Benefit Scheme Application Form.

NHS Injury Benefit Scheme Factsheet

NHS Injury Benefit Scheme Application Form

Although claims to the NHS Injury Benefit Scheme are managed by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, you don’t have to have been a member of the NHS pension schemes to make a claim.

Contact us

Scottish Public Pension Agency
Injury Benefits Team
Tweedside Park
Tweedbank
Galashiels
TD1 3TE
Telephone: 01896 893 000 (ask for Injury Benefits when prompted)
Email: sppainjury@gov.scot

If you’re a member of the NHS Superannuation Scheme (Scotland) please quote your reference number (it will begin with the letters SB).

If you’re not in the scheme or do not have a reference number, we’ll need your full name, date of birth and National Insurance number.

If you’re acting on behalf of someone else, you’ll need to supply their name, date of birth and National Insurance number and your name and address for correspondence as well as written evidence of your authority to act on their behalf.

Find out more about the Guaranteed Minimum Pension

If you were contributing to a public service occupational pension scheme between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 1997, you were contracted out of the earnings related state additional pension.

During this period legislation ensured public service schemes guaranteed to pay scheme members at least as much as they would have received had they contributed to the state additional pension. This amount is known as the Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP).

You can find out more about this subject, and how it affects some people who retired before 6 April 2016, by clicking the buttons below.

Guaranteed Minimum Pension

GMP Reconciliation