Ill Health Retirement – Further High Court Update – 8 October 2021
As members have been informed, a hearing will take place in the High Court in the week of 11 October 2021 in relation to settlement of a case about the ill-health early retirement (“IHER”) benefits paid by the Fund.
As members were told by recent letter, the hearing will be held remotely before Mrs Justice Bacon DBE. This is over video-conference and means that no-one will attend the hearing in person. Those members who wished to watch the hearing remotely were invited to contact Mercer and those that did have been provided with arrangements to do so.
The Court has now confirmed that the remote hearing will take place on 13 October 2021. We will write to members again once the outcome of the Court hearing is known and some post-hearing steps have taken place. This is likely to be in November 2021.
As noted previously, the only thing that you need to do now, if you are not in receipt of an IHER pension but you think you might be affected, is keep safe any relevant records that you have.
The Trustee strongly recommends that, where possible, if you were in service on 8 October 1993 (even if you were in between ships on that date), you retain any medical and employment history and/or details about your past health. This is particularly around the time of leaving Merchant Navy service as a rating. If you are incapable of doing so or are the survivor of a member who was in service on 8 October 1993, the Trustee recommends that the family/survivors/estates of the member retain any relevant details and/or records.
