Medical discharge and ill-health pension explained
If you are discharged on medical grounds, you may receive an enhanced ill-health pension that is paid straight away, whatever your age, rather than a preserved pension you wait years to draw. How much you get is set by a tier system that reflects how much your condition affects your ability to work, and the higher tiers add notional service to boost the figure. This guide explains the tiers, what the enhancement does, and how the award is decided, but the formal figure always comes from Veterans UK after a medical assessment.
Key takeaways
- A medical discharge can give an ill-health pension paid immediately, regardless of your age.
- The amount depends on a tier, which reflects how badly your condition affects your capacity for work.
- Higher tiers add notional extra service, so the pension and lump sum are enhanced beyond what you actually served.
- If your condition was caused by service, you may also have a separate Armed Forces Compensation Scheme claim.
- The tier and the award are decided by Veterans UK after a medical assessment, not by a calculator.
- The estimate here is a guide only; your formal award comes from Veterans UK.
What an ill-health pension is
An ill-health pension is the benefit paid when you have to leave the forces because a medical condition makes you unfit to continue serving. Unlike a normal early departure, it is paid immediately rather than preserved until pension age, which is the single most valuable feature, because it can mean decades of extra income.
The point of the tier system and the enhancement is to recognise that someone forced out by ill health has lost the chance to keep building their pension, so the schemes top up what they had earned so far rather than simply paying the bare amount accrued to the discharge date.
How the tiers work
Your award is set by a tier that reflects how much your condition reduces your ability to do civilian work. A lower tier, broadly for those who can still work in some capacity, pays a pension based largely on the service you had actually completed. A higher tier, for those whose capacity for any work is significantly or permanently affected, pays an enhanced pension with notional extra service added on top.
The exact tiers and their names differ by scheme, AFPS 75, 05 and 15 each express them slightly differently, and the boundary between them is a clinical judgement. That is why two people with the same length of service can receive very different awards, and why the assessment, not the calculator, decides the outcome.
Enhancement and the lump sum
Where a higher tier applies, the scheme credits you with notional service you did not actually complete, which lifts both the annual pension and, on the schemes that pay one, the automatic lump sum. The effect is to move your figure closer to what you might have earned had you been able to serve on, rather than leaving you on the smaller amount earned to the discharge date.
If your condition was caused or made worse by service, you may also be able to claim under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, which is a separate compensation award and not part of your pension. The two can sit alongside each other, so it is worth checking both rather than assuming the pension is the whole story.
How the award is decided and what to do
The tier and the final figures are decided by Veterans UK following a medical assessment of your condition, so the numbers are not something you can set yourself or read off a calculator. Use the medical discharge calculator here to get a rough sense of the scale, then rely on the formal award for anything you need to plan around.
Because a medical discharge often happens quickly and at a stressful time, it is worth getting help. Your unit, a service charity, or a regulated adviser can help you understand the offer, and the compensation side in particular benefits from specialist input. This site is independent, not affiliated with the MOD or Veterans UK, and provides estimates rather than regulated advice.
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Frequently asked questions
James Hartley
James Hartley spent 22 years in the British Army, including unit personnel administration and pensions and records duties, and now writes the scheme guides and scenario pages on this site. He is not a regulated financial adviser, so the content is general information rather than personal advice.
Sources: gov.uk · GAD factors · Veterans UK · Forces Pension Society · MoneyHelper.