ESA and Teachers Pension

I’m having a bit of a panic. I need to send my ESA50 off tomorrow morning and am just about to print off the computerised form. My sudden concern is that I’ve made quite a few references to the fact I was medically retired from teaching and get an enhanced Teachers Pension on the grounds that I’m unable to do any sort of work at all. My worry is that if I’m found either in WRAG or “fit to work” then the DWP will contact the Teachers Pension Service and say I am able do some work and I will therefore lose my Teachers Pension. I’d really like to keep the references in as I think it helps my case! Does anyone have any experience or advice about whether there’s any linkage between getting ESA and keeping a Teachers pension. All logic tells me that the two things are totally unrelated but I worry when I don’t actually have something from them in writing.

asdman wrote:

I’m having a bit of a panic. I need to send my ESA50 off tomorrow morning and am just about to print off the computerised form. My sudden concern is that I’ve made quite a few references to the fact I was medically retired from teaching and get an enhanced Teachers Pension on the grounds that I’m unable to do any sort of work at all. My worry is that if I’m found either in WRAG or “fit to work” then the DWP will contact the Teachers Pension Service and say I am able do some work and I will therefore lose my Teachers Pension. I’d really like to keep the references in as I think it helps my case! Does anyone have any experience or advice about whether there’s any linkage between getting ESA and keeping a Teachers pension. All logic tells me that the two things are totally unrelated but I worry when I don’t actually have something from them in writing.

I'm not really 'au fait' with ESA as I retired from local government on ill-health grounds when ESA was IB.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but is a teacher's pension not the same as a local government occupational pension ?

I am now of state retirement pension age, so have had no dealings with ESA. However, when I had to take ill-health retirement I was on Invalidity Benefit (IVB) and remained on IVB until I received my state pension.

My wife is a former NHS nurse who had to take ill-health retirement after contracting an industrial disease at work. She was on Incapacity Benefit until she reached 60 years of age and went onto state retirement pension.

Neither of us lost our respective long term IVB/IB. nor were these benefits reduced by 50p in the £ as was normal at that time if we had an occupational pension of £85.00 per week or more as we were covered by transitional protection.

Whether this applies to ESA whilst in receipt of an occupational pension I'm real not sure.

Perhaps one of our moderators with experience of ESA could clarify the current situation.

Jim Allison wrote:

asdman wrote:

I’m having a bit of a panic. I need to send my ESA50 off tomorrow morning and am just about to print off the computerised form. My sudden concern is that I’ve made quite a few references to the fact I was medically retired from teaching and get an enhanced Teachers Pension on the grounds that I’m unable to do any sort of work at all. My worry is that if I’m found either in WRAG or “fit to work” then the DWP will contact the Teachers Pension Service and say I am able do some work and I will therefore lose my Teachers Pension. I’d really like to keep the references in as I think it helps my case! Does anyone have any experience or advice about whether there’s any linkage between getting ESA and keeping a Teachers pension. All logic tells me that the two things are totally unrelated but I worry when I don’t actually have something from them in writing.

I'm not really 'au fait' with ESA as I retired from local government on ill-health grounds when ESA was IB.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but is a teacher's pension not the same as a local government occupational pension ?

I am now of state retirement pension age, so have had no dealings with ESA. However, when I had to take ill-health retirement I was on Invalidity Benefit (IVB) and remained on IVB until I received my state pension.

My wife is a former NHS nurse who had to take ill-health retirement after contracting an industrial disease at work. She was on Incapacity Benefit until she reached 60 years of age and went onto state retirement pension.

Neither of us lost our respective long term IVB/IB. nor were these benefits reduced by 50p in the £ as was normal at that time if we had an occupational pension of £85.00 per week or more as we were covered by transitional protection.

Whether this applies to ESA whilst in receipt of an occupational pension I'm real not sure.

Perhaps one of our moderators with experience of ESA could clarify the current situation.

Please see the following FAQ Jim :

Will my pension be disregarded under ESA?

bro58

Thanks for the link