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Understanding NHS Pensions' estimate processing times for ill health

Standard processing timelines

Keep these processing times in mind when submitting pension estimate requests. 

Standard and ill health estimates can take up to 40 working days to process.

Serious ill health estimates, where a member’s life expectancy is less than 12 months, are fast-tracked. We aim to process these as soon as possible, provided there are no underlying data issues.

Why ill health estimates can be delayed

There are a few reasons why ill health estimates can be delayed. These include when:

  • you submit an ill health estimate request after we’ve already accepted a member for ill health retirement
  • members wait for their estimate before completing their part of the final retirement application (AW8)
  • we find data errors or missing information during the initial estimate stage

To ensure your members receive their pension benefits as quickly as possible, actively encourage them to complete and submit their AW8 application without waiting for an estimate first.

This prevents them from waiting unnecessarily and helps them get their pension benefits sooner.