We are aware that the Home Office has requested Police Pension Administrators to send a letter out to all retired officers in receipt of an injury award to request details of any DWP benefits they may be in receipt of. This information is a requirement of The Police [Injury Benefit] Regulations 2006 and is used, together with other factors when calculating the amount of the actual injury award paid monthly to the pensioner. The amount of a retired officer’s injury award is calculated in accordance with Schedule 3 of The Police [Injury Benefit] Regulations 2006. Paragraph 7 of the Schedule outlines that any injury award shall be reduced by the amount of any additional benefits [as indicated in sub paragraph 3] received by the pensioner.
It is however, important to be aware that the relevant benefits are those DWP benefits payable to pensioners for the qualifying injury on duty only. Any benefits payable for a different injury are not taken into account and are not deductable from the injury pension. It is also important to note that should a pensioner cease receiving incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance and become ‘fit for work’, but later resume receiving the same benefits, the pensioner is given the ‘benefit of the doubt’ that they are payable for a different disability and they would then not be deducted from any injury pension.
We did ask the Home Office to include this information in the letter to be sent to those affected.
Use the links for information on relevant benefits:
- Injury Awards and DWP benefits – how it’s calculated and what the limitations are – Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006
- Excerpt from Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 – relevant to Injury Awards and DWP benefits
- List of deductable relevant benefits and common non-relevant benefits
- Excerpt from section 94 of Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 – relevant deductable deductable benefits
- Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
Use the links for further relevant information:
- Schedule 3 The Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006
- Home Office note – changes to Injury Pensions payments after Apr 2010
- Police Pension Scheme booklet – Injury Awards outline of the process of allocation