Can you work after Teachers’ Pension ill-health retirement?

Retiring from teaching on ill-health grounds doesn’t mean you can never work again. Plenty of people go on to do something else after Teachers’ Pension ill-health retirement: a few hours in a shop, freelance work, a job in a school office. Whether that’s allowed, and what it does to your pension, depends on which award you have and on one line you can’t cross.

That line is teaching. Go back to it, paid or unpaid, and the pension stops. Everything else is more nuanced, and the rules for people who claimed after leaving teaching are about to tighten: the Department for Education is consulting on a change that would apply from April 2027 and could reach people already being paid.

This guide covers the Teachers’ Pension Scheme in England and Wales. For how ill-health retirement works across the other public sector schemes, see our ill-health retirement guide.

In short

• There are two awards. Accrued Benefits go to people permanently unable to teach but able to do other work. Enhanced Benefits add extra pension for people unable to do almost any work.
• On Accrued Benefits you can do work other than teaching. We found no earnings limit in the rules.
• On Enhanced Benefits, taking any work ends the enhancement unless a doctor certifies you still meet the test and the scheme accepts it.
• Going back to teaching, paid or unpaid, stops the ill-health pension on the day you start.
• These stopping rules fall away once you reach your normal pension age.
• A consultation closing on 30 October 2026 proposes that pensions awarded after someone had left teaching would stop once they can work again, from April 2027, including existing awards.

Work after Teachers’ Pension ill-health retirement: the two awards

Teachers’ Pensions, which runs the scheme, describes two levels of award. In its own words, “Accrued Benefits will be awarded if a member is permanently unable to teach but can do other work. Enhanced benefits are awarded if the member’s assessed as being unable to undertake any type of gainful employment.”

The regulations put a number on it. For the lower award you must be unfit to teach despite appropriate medical treatment, and likely to stay that way permanently. For the higher award you must also meet what the rules call the total incapacity condition: your “ability to carry out any work is impaired by more than 90%”, and is likely to stay impaired by more than 90% permanently.

Hold on to that 90% figure. It’s the test the scheme applies again if you start working.

What does each award pay?

Accrued Benefits pay the pension you’ve already built up, early and without the reduction that normally applies to early retirement. Nothing is added on top.

Enhanced Benefits add pension for some of the service you would have gone on to earn. Teachers’ Pensions says that in the career average scheme, where every ill-health application has been made since 1 April 2022, the enhancement is “half the service to NPA, multiplied by the member’s salary and divided by 57”. NPA is your normal pension age. In the older final salary sections, the enhancement was half the service you could have completed before normal pension age.

One condition matters later on. The enhancement is only available if you were still in teaching, or applied within two years of leaving, when you claimed. Teachers’ Pensions puts it simply: “a member’s service will only be enhanced provided they’re in service at the time of the application.”

Can you work on Accrued Benefits?

If your award is Accrued Benefits only, the scheme has already accepted that you can do work other than teaching. That’s the basis of the award. So taking a job outside teaching doesn’t, on its own, stop the pension.

The rules that stop an ill-health pension in the career average scheme name two events, and both are about teaching: going back into teaching employment covered by the scheme, or doing “any work as a teacher” outside it. The final salary rules say the same and spell out that unpaid teaching counts too. That takes in supply work, private tutoring and teaching adults, paid or not.

We found no earnings limit and no reduction tied to what you earn in other work. The restriction is on the kind of work, not the amount.

Can you work in a school if you are not teaching?

Possibly. Asked whether someone on ill-health benefits can take a support role in a school, Teachers’ Pensions answers that if only Accrued Benefits were awarded, “then they may be able to take up a support role.” The wording is careful. A role that drifts into teaching, covering lessons for example, is a different matter. If you’re unsure whether a job counts as teaching, ask the scheme in writing before you start.

Can you work on Enhanced Benefits?

Enhanced Benefits were awarded because the scheme accepted you could do almost no work at all. Taking a job tests that directly.

Under the career average rules, the enhanced part of your pension, called the total incapacity pension, stops on the date your ability to work is no longer impaired by more than 90%. The rules treat that as happening on the earliest of these dates:

• the date of a medical report, requested by the scheme, showing you no longer meet the condition
• the date you go back into teaching, or do any work as a teacher
• the date you start any other form of work, unless a registered medical practitioner certifies that you still meet the total incapacity condition despite that work, and the scheme is satisfied that you do

So on Enhanced Benefits, a small amount of work isn’t automatically fatal to the enhancement, but it needs a doctor’s certificate and the scheme’s agreement. Teachers’ Pensions says the same about support roles: someone on Enhanced Benefits “must provide the Secretary of State with a certificate from a registered medical practitioner for their benefits to continue to be paid.”

If the enhancement stops because you took non-teaching work, the rules stop the total incapacity pension, not the whole pension. The underlying ill-health pension you had already built up keeps being paid, because the career average rules stop that part only for teaching. Going back to teaching stops both.

The final salary rules follow the same pattern. A total incapacity pension there stops if your ability to work is no longer impaired by more than 90%, and taking “any other form of work” counts unless a doctor certifies otherwise and the Secretary of State agrees.

What happens if you go back to teaching?

This is the clearest rule of the lot. Teachers’ Pensions tells employers: “If a member is receiving Ill-health benefits, it’s because they had been judged permanently medically unfit to teach. So, if a member returns to teaching, their Ill-health pension must stop immediately.”

It applies to both awards, and there’s no review first: the pension stops on the date you start. If you later become unwell again, you can apply afresh. Teachers’ Pensions tells employers that a member “will only be awarded another Ill-health pension if they become ill again and satisfy us that they’re unfit to teach. Otherwise, they can retire on any other grounds at the appropriate age.”

The pension you earned before the ill-health award isn’t lost when it stops. It’s still yours, and it can be paid later on the normal retirement terms. For how the scheme’s pension ages work, see our Teachers’ Pension Scheme guide.

Do the rules still apply after normal pension age?

No. Every one of these stopping rules carries the same exception. The career average rule on ill-health pensions applies “unless P has reached normal pension age”, and the total incapacity rule applies unless you have reached normal pension age before the date in question. The final salary rules use the section’s own pension age, 60 or 65.

In practice, the restrictions on working last only until the age your pension would have been paid anyway. After that, working doesn’t stop it.

What changes in 2027 if you claimed after leaving teaching?

Not everyone claims ill-health retirement straight from the classroom. The rules sort claims into two routes, and the difference matters more from 2027.

• In service. You left teaching because of your health and applied before leaving, or within two years of your last day of pensionable service. You need to show you can no longer teach. You can get either award.
• Out of service. You left for a reason other than your health, or applied more than two years after your last day. You must meet both tests: unable to teach, and your ability to do any work impaired by more than 90%. Even then you get Accrued Benefits only. The enhancement is not available on this route.

Here’s the gap. For the out-of-service route, the rules on when the pension stops mention only going back to teaching. They say nothing about what happens if you recover enough to do other work, even though being unable to do other work was a condition of the award.

The Department for Education proposes to close it. Its consultation says that for out-of-service members, “entitlement to an ill-health pension will cease when the individual commences any form of gainful employment.” The draft regulation adds a new rule: where the out-of-service route applies, the pension stops on “the date on which P ceases to meet the total incapacity condition.”

Two points in the consultation deserve a close read:

• It would apply to awards where entitlement arises on or after 1 April 2027.
• It would also reach people already being paid: “For existing recipients, their entitlement will continue to be assessed in line with the amended criteria, meaning that where an individual is able to undertake work to an extent that they no longer meet the eligibility condition, their entitlement may cease.”

The department says it is still weighing the equality impact of the ill-health change, and that responses will inform that assessment. It expects the final regulations to be in force by spring 2027.

This is a proposal, not the law yet, and it touches only the out-of-service route. If you were awarded ill-health benefits in service, your position doesn’t change. If you’re on the out-of-service route and working, or thinking about it, the consultation is open until 30 October 2026 and you can respond. The documents and the response route are on the Department for Education consultation page.

Tell the scheme before you start work

Whatever your award, telling the scheme isn’t optional. Teachers’ Pensions tells employers that “you and the member must notify us in writing immediately, of any employment undertaken if the member is in receipt of Ill-health benefits.”

The scheme can also ask you to prove you’re still entitled. The regulations let it require evidence “at any time”, and if the evidence doesn’t arrive by the date it sets, it can withhold all or part of the pension. A pension paid after it should have stopped is an overpayment, and the scheme can ask for it back.

One practical point for late 2026: the scheme’s administration moves from Capita to Tata Consultancy Services on 1 November 2026, so check where to send correspondence before you write. Our guide to the Teachers’ Pensions handover has the dates.

What if you disagree with a decision?

Decisions on ill-health awards are made by Teachers’ Pensions on the advice of medical advisers appointed by the Secretary of State. If you think the scheme has stopped or refused a pension wrongly, the route is the scheme’s internal dispute resolution procedure first, then the Pensions Ombudsman. Our ill-health guide explains what the Ombudsman does and doesn’t review.

Frequently asked questions

Pension Plain’s take

The rules are fairer than their reputation. An ill-health pension isn’t a sentence of never working again. For most people on Accrued Benefits, the only hard line is teaching. The trap is not knowing which award you have. Enhanced Benefits look like the better deal, and they are, but they carry the strictest condition on work. The 2027 proposal is aimed at a real gap; reaching back to existing awards is the part that deserves scrutiny, and the consultation is the place to say so.

Where to get help

Pension Plain explains how the rules work. It does not give financial advice, and nothing here is a recommendation about whether to take a job.

• Your award letter says whether you have Accrued or Enhanced Benefits and which route you claimed on. Teachers’ Pensions holds the record and can confirm how the rules apply to a specific job.
• Your union can help with applications, reviews and disputes.
• MoneyHelper offers free, impartial, government-backed guidance on pensions: moneyhelper.org.uk
• For regulated advice on your own position, an FCA-authorised adviser is the route. The register is at register.fca.org.uk

Pension Plain is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. This is information, not advice.

Sources

• Teachers’ Pensions, Ill health, employer FAQs.
• Teachers’ Pensions, Ill-health, member guidance.
• The Teachers’ Pension Scheme Regulations 2014, regulation 107 (incapacity definitions), regulation 110 (entitlement), regulation 114 (when an ill-health pension stops), regulation 116 and regulation 118 (total incapacity pension), regulation 175 (evidence of entitlement).
• The Teachers’ Pensions Regulations 2010, regulation 67 and regulation 69 (final salary cessation rules).
• Department for Education, The Teachers’ Pension Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2027, consultation, 7 August to 30 October 2026, with the consultation document and draft regulations.

Fact-checked: 23 September 2026