Enhanced annuity and impaired life annuity entitlement does vary a little. The medical conditions that might entitle you to an impaired life annuity include heart disease, stroke, angina, cancer (various), chronic bronchitis and long-standing diabetes. Some insurance companies (the annuity providers) recognise hypertension. The acid test is the degree by which your medical condition is likely to reduce your life expectancy. Most people seeking impaired life annuities have to get their doctor to complete a medical questionnaire. Some annuity providers have a standard form. Simpler lifestyle annuities can be arranged on the basis of a box-ticking medical type form which you complete. These annuities offer better annuity rates if you smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day or are seriously overweight, defined as being 30% overweight for your height, age and gender. Manual workers might also qualify for higher annuity rates.
Impaired life annuities are best suited to those people with more than a year to live. Someone looking at less than a year to live would do better to seek a special dispensation from the Revenue allowing them unlimited access to their pension fund, tax-free. Here’s an example; Mrs G, 60, of Eastbourne, suffers from a malignant liver tumour and long-standing hypertension, and she had two personal pensions. An annuity specialist was able to combine these and find her enhanced annuity rates 20% higher than those available from her own pension conpanies, resulting in her being thousands of pounds better off in her retirement as a result of shopping around.
