This paper examines the ill-health retirement of police officers in the forces of England and Wales between 2002-03 and 2009-10. Differences in ill-health retirement rates across forces are statistically related to area-specific stresses of policing and force-specific differences in human resources policies. Reforms to police pension plans – in particular a shift in the incidence of financing ill-health retirement from central government to local police authorities – occurred in the mid-2000s. We show these measures impacted on the level of ill-health retirement, especially on forces with above-average rates of retirement. We find that residual differences in post-2006 ill-health retirement rates across forces are related to their differential capacities to raise revenue from local property taxes.
Authors
![Richard Disney](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-05/Richard_Disney.jpeg?itok=l_sa1MjX)
Research Associate University of Sussex
Richard is an IFS Research Associate, a Part-time Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex and a Visiting Professor of Economics at UCL.
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
Rowena Crawford
Report details
- Publisher
- National Bureau of Economic Research
Suggested citation
Crawford, R and Disney, R. (2012). Reform of Ill-health Retirement Benefits for Police in England and Wales: The roles of National Policy and Local Finance. London: National Bureau of Economic Research. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/reform-ill-health-retirement-benefits-police-england-and-wales-roles-national-policy (accessed: 30 June 2024).
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