The payment of a NHOD benefit is conditional on:
- STC being satisfied on medical advice that a PSS member has become incapable, due to a certified infirmity of body or mind, of personally exercising the functions of a police officer, including those of a constable, and
- the PSS member having been discharged as medically unfit from the NSW Police Force.
You can apply for a medical discharge benefit if you satisfy all of the following. You:
- joined the Police Force before 1 April 1988
- are still in the Police Force, and
- are a contributor to the PSS.
You will be paid a NHOD invalidity benefit if it is certified that you are incapable of discharging full operational duties in the Police Force because of a medical condition.
Benefit payable
If you have been a member of the scheme for less than 20 years, you will receive a gratuity (a lump sum) equal to twice your annual salary of office (superable salary) at the time you retire. If you have been a member of the scheme for at least 20 years, you will be paid an indexed fortnightly pension. The amount of pension payable depends on the length of your scheme membership.
On the death in service of a PSS member that is determined as not hurt on duty, a gratuity (i.e. lump sum) is payable to the deceased member's spouse or de facto partner, or to the estate of the deceased if there is no spouse or de facto partner. A de facto partner may include a same sex partner.
The gratuity is a multiple of the deceased member's annual salary of office (superable salary), and is based on the total period of service the member could have worked in the NSW Police Force to age 55. Where the member was working part-time, the superable salary is the equivalent full-time or attributed salary.
If a member dies after age 55, the period of actual service is counted. In both cases, the maximum period of service that may be counted is 30 years, and the maximum benefit payable is 7.2 times the late member's superable salary.
Please refer to PSS Fact Sheet 6: Death benefits for more information.