Ill-health early retirement (“IHER”) settlement update
Our administrators are now part of Aptia
In January 2024, Aptia UK Limited bought Mercer’s UK pension business, which includes the Fund’s administrators.
If you have a question about the IHER settlement, please email mnrpf.mailings@aptia-uk.com or phone 0800 197 6923.
For anything else, please use our updated contact page.
IMPORTANT – THIS CONCERNS ANY CLAIM YOU MAY HAVE FOR PAYMENT/BENEFITS UNDER THE COURT SETTLEMENT IN THE FUTURE
In March 2022 we wrote to members about the settlement of the Trustee’s Court application over certain IHER benefits payable from the Fund. As stated in that letter, the settlement was approved by a Judge at a hearing on 24 February 2022. You can download that letter (PDF).
The Trustee is now in the process of implementing the settlement. In summary, increased benefits and/or payments will only be given under the settlement to certain members who:
- retired on an IHER pension on or after 1 November 1989 and before 8 October 1993 (referred to as Categories A and B in the letter); or
- were in service on 8 October 1993 and would have been eligible for an IHER pension when leaving service, had an IHER pension still been available after that time (referred to as Category C in the letter – see further below).
We will write to those who might be eligible to receive a payment or additional benefits under the settlement.
Claims Process For Certain Members – Category C
As part of the settlement, there is a particular claims process for Category C members who are those who:
- were in service on 8 October 1993, and had been in service long enough at that time to have qualified for an IHER pension (had new IHER pensions not been stopped on 8 October 1993); and
- left service before Normal Pension Age due to permanent unfitness for sea service at the time they left service.
We will write to all of the potential Category C members who we are able to trace and provide them with details of how to make a claim if they believe that they may be eligible.
If you think you may be eligible to claim as a current Category C member, but you have not received a letter about the claims process by mid-July, then please get in contact with us. If you do not make a claim, you will not be considered for any payment under the settlement.
If you know any member who left service after 8 October 1993 because they were permanently unfit for further sea service, and they have not received a letter from Mercer by mid-July 2022, please ask them to contact Mercer. If they have died and you know their personal representatives or survivors, then please also suggest to them that they contact Mercer. If the member has died, you can provide their name and any contact details for their personal representatives to Mercer (no other personal information please). We do not have contact details for everyone who could benefit from the settlement (including the survivors of members and their estates).
If you have received a letter about the claims process, then please observe the deadlines in the letter. If a deadline is missed, you risk being excluded from the process.
To make a claim in the settlement as a Category C member, you will need to provide us with information and evidence.
