Police ill-health retirement calculator
Choose a scenario to see what the 1987, 2006 or 2015 scheme would pay, lump sum and injury award included, worked out in your browser without a single question about your health.
Ill-health retirement · Scenario
The scenario to illustrate
Everyone serving since 1 April 2022 is in the 2015 scheme, with any earlier 1987 or 2006 service. “Rules only” shows a legacy scheme on its own, as for an officer who left before then.
Tier to illustrate
Lower tier: paid when the medical process finds you permanently unable to do police duties. Upper tier: when it also finds you unable to do any regular work (30 hours a week). This tool doesn’t decide either.
Full-time service. For part-time periods or exact dates, open “Dates and part-time periods”.
Basic pay at the full-time rate, even if you work part-time: the 1987 and 2006 schemes use it as your average or final pay, and the 2015 scheme for its upper-tier addition.
Leave empty to estimate it as 1/55.3 of your pay for each year in the 2015 scheme.
Sets the 1987 scheme’s voluntary retirement age, which limits its ill-health pension and its reviews.
Tax-free lump sums taken since 6 April 2024, plus a quarter of any lifetime allowance used before then. The allowance is £268,275 unless protected.
Pay and pension in the same tax year. Used only if part of a lump sum is taxed as income. Default: your pay, £52,015.
Illustration only — not advice. These figures use the 2015 scheme ill-health rules, plus the details you entered. They don't take account of your wider circumstances (other pensions, tax position, health, family) and aren't a recommendation to choose any option. Your pension administrator (find yours) can give you an official figure.
This uses the scheme's published ill-health tiers. Whether you qualify, and at which tier, is decided by your force's medical process, not by this tool. We don't store or share the health-related answers you enter here.
Ill-health pension, lower tier
£9,405.97
a year before tax and before any lump sum · ≈ £783.83 a month
- Largest lump sum (12:1)
- £40,311.29
Provisional: you have 28 days from receiving the medical report to appeal, then 28 more days for your grounds. A compulsory retirement is void if the appeal board finds you are not permanently disabled.
Get your official figure
How the pension is worked out
- Lower tier: your earned 2015 pension, £9,405.97 a year, with no reduction for early payment (estimated as 1/55.3 of the pay for each year at your hours, without revaluation).
2015 scheme: commutation at £12 for £1
No lump sum
£0.00
- Pension given up a year
- £0.00
- Pension left a year (before tax)
- £9,405.97
- Tax-free part
- £0.00
Largest lump sum
£40,311.29
- Pension given up a year
- £3,359.27
- Pension left a year (before tax)
- £6,046.69
- Tax-free part
- £40,311.29
- £12 of lump sum for each £1 a year of pension given up, up to 30/7 × the pension before commutation (35.71% of it commuted): HMRC’s 25% limit exactly.
Worked out in your browser: the amounts you enter here are not stored or sent.
What the rules say about this result
Open questions and points to check
- The maximum lump sum uses HMRC's 25% limit (35.71% of the pension at £12 per £1); the scheme actuary's own limit was not found. SI 2015/445 reg 124(4); HMRC PTM063240
Reviews after retirement
- Until age 60: Whether you are fit for ordinary police duties again can be reviewed at any time; if so you can be offered your job back. SI 2015/445 regs 110–111
- For 5 years after retiring: A claim to move up to the upper tier must be made within 5 years of retiring (later only for a listed progressive condition). SI 2015/445 regs 112–113 and Sch 2
Assumptions and rules applied
- Assumes you were not found ineligible for ill-health benefits when you joined (a rule the Home Office has proposed to remove). SI 2015/445 reg 36; Home Office consultation, 20 August – 17 September 2026
- Assumes none of your £268,275 Lump Sum Allowance has been used. ITEPA 2003 s.637P
- Your 2015 earned pension is estimated as 1/55.3 of today’s pay for each year at your hours, without the yearly revaluation: the figure on your benefit statement can be entered instead. SI 2015/445 reg 58(4); reg 2(1) (index adjustment)
England and Wales schemes: the Police Pensions Regulations 1987, 2006 and 2015 and the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006, with GAD’s 1987 commutation factors. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules.
Three schemes, three formulas
Which formula applies depends on where your service sits. Officers still serving on 1 April 2022 retire from the 2015 scheme, and their 1987 or 2006 service is added as a legacy part: the better of the 1987 ill-health pension on 31 March 2022 and the 1987 pension on all their service, or the 2006 standard ill-health pension with its lump sum.
- 2015 scheme
- Lower tier: Your earned pension, paid now with no reduction for early payment.
- Upper tier: Plus final pay ÷ 55.3 × the years to 60 ÷ 2 (at most 3 × the earned pension under 5 years' service).
- Lump sum: £12 for each £1 a year given up, up to 30/7 × the pension.
- 2006 scheme
- Lower tier: Your pension, 1/70 of final pay for each year, and its lump sum of 4 × the pension.
- Upper tier: Plus half of the service you could have done to 55, on the pension and on the lump sum.
- Lump sum: Paid automatically; it cannot be exchanged for more pension.
- 1987 scheme (single tier)
- Lower tier: 2/60 of average pay a year from 5 to 10 years; above 10 years 7/60 plus the normal accrual, from 20/60 to 40/60, and no more than serving to your voluntary retirement age would give.
- Upper tier: No upper tier.
- Lump sum: Up to a quarter of the pension at GAD's factor (26.30 below 48 years 6 months), with HMRC's limit and charge.
Part-time service: counted in full, then scaled
Every service test counts part-time years as full years: the 2 years needed for a pension, the 5-year limits and the 1987 bands. The pension is then scaled by your hours, so 8 years at 60% add 4.8 years to the pension but 8 years to the tests. In the 1987 and 2006 schemes the award is never less than at an earlier date, so later years on fewer hours cannot lower it. In the 2015 scheme the upper-tier addition follows your average hours over your career.
The process, appeals and reviews
Your force refers set questions to a selected medical practitioner (SMP), then decides whether to retire you. You have 28 days from receiving the report to give notice of appeal to the Police Medical Appeal Board, and 28 more days for your grounds. Until then any figure is provisional. After retirement the pension can be reviewed, at intervals that are not unreasonably short, until the ages shown in the tool.
Frequently asked questions
How is a police ill-health pension worked out in the 2015 and 2006 schemes?
Both have two tiers. In the 2015 scheme the lower tier pays your built-up pension with no reduction for early payment; the upper tier adds half of what you would have built up from leaving to 60, on your final pay. In the 2006 scheme the lower tier pays 1/70 of final pay a year with a lump sum of 4 times that pension; the upper tier adds half of the service you could have done to 55.
How is a 1987 scheme ill-health pension worked out?
The 1987 scheme has a single tier. It pays 1/60 of average pay a year below 5 years' service, 2/60 a year from 5 to 10 years, and above 10 years 7/60 plus the normal accrual, between 20/60 and 40/60. It can never exceed what you would have had by serving to your voluntary retirement age. Below the service threshold, without an injury on duty, the award is a one-off gratuity.
What is the difference between the lower and the upper tier?
Both need the medical process to find you permanently unable to perform the ordinary duties of a police officer. The upper tier is paid when it also finds you unable to do any regular employment, which the 2015 scheme defines as 30 hours a week on average. The 1987 scheme has a single tier. The selected medical practitioner and your force decide the tier, not a calculator.
Can I take a lump sum from an ill-health pension?
In the 2015 scheme you give up pension at £12 for each £1 a year, up to 30/7 times the pension: HMRC's tax-free limit. In the 1987 scheme you can commute up to a quarter at GAD's factor for your age; below 48 years 6 months it is 26.30, so a full quarter goes over HMRC's limit and the excess is taxed at 40%. In the 2006 scheme the lump sum is automatic and can't be exchanged for pension.
How does part-time service change an ill-health pension?
Part-time years count as full years for every service test, such as the 2-year minimum and the 5-year limits, and the pension is then scaled by your hours. In the 1987 and 2006 schemes the award is never less than it would have been had you retired at an earlier date, so later years on fewer hours cannot reduce it. The 2015 scheme has no such protection.
What is a police injury award?
When the disablement results from an injury received in the execution of duty, the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 add a one-off gratuity of 12.5% to 50% of average pay, by band, and an injury pension. That pension tops your income up to a guaranteed 15% to 85% of average pay, by band and service, after deducting three quarters of your police pension before any lump sum and some benefits.
Is the figure final once I am retired on ill-health grounds?
No. You have 28 days from receiving the medical report to give notice of appeal, then 28 more days for your grounds, and a compulsory retirement is void if the appeal board finds you are not permanently disabled. Afterwards the pension can be reviewed: the 1987 pension until you would have had 25 years' service or reached your voluntary retirement age, the 2015 lower tier until 60 and the upper tier until State Pension Age.
What if my ill-health pension started between April 2015 and March 2022?
It falls under the McCloud remedy's immediate choice: after a remediable service statement you choose legacy or 2015 benefits for that period. A 1987 award matches the 2015 lower tier, and the 2006 lower and upper tiers match the 2015 tiers. Medical decisions already made are not reopened.
Does this page ask about my health or keep what I enter?
No. You choose a scenario to illustrate: the tier, and an injury award with its band. There is no question about your health. Everything is worked out in your browser: what you enter is not stored, not sent to us or anyone else, and not added to any enquiry form, email or analytics event.
Sources
Official sources, checked on 23 October 2026. General information and illustrations, not regulated financial advice. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own schemes.
- legislation.gov.uk: The Police Pensions Regulations 1987
- legislation.gov.uk: The Police Pensions Regulations 2006
- legislation.gov.uk: The Police Pensions Regulations 2015, Part 7 (retirement and ill-health benefits)
- legislation.gov.uk: The Police Pensions Regulations 2015, Schedule 4 paragraph 23 (transition members)
- legislation.gov.uk: The Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/932)
- legislation.gov.uk: The Police Pensions (Part-time Service) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/1439)
- legislation.gov.uk: The Police Pensions (Remediable Service) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/831)
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