Police ill-health retirement process can make 'people more poorly'

That is the view of Chrissie Wall, Hampshire Police Federation’s equality lead and point of contact for ill-health retirement.

Chrissie, speaking after a talk at the national police conference, said: ‘Sadly the process can be elongated and ultimately make people more poorly, and there’s a massive lack of consistency throughout the 43 forces.

‘Just one thing that might have been useful for the people in the room would be to have had a bit more information on the different tiers on the 2015 pension scheme, and how to address if somebody’s awarded a lower tier. That’s quite a new thing for us all, as that scheme has two levels of ill-health retirement.

‘It’s only now that we’re getting lots of people retiring under the 2015 scheme. Previously we didn’t have the tiers and the enhanced elements of pensions, so I think there’s quite a bit more for us to learn.’