I wasn’t suggesting that entitlements were open to negotiation. The reason I suggested Union representation was that retiring on ill health grounds is a major decision in most people’s lives, & rather than turning up to a meeting alone it is advisable to have the support of someone who may have had prior dealings in this area, & who could look at the situation with an independent eye & perhaps bring any queries to the fore that the OP might overlook. Health issues have now been highlighted, so in case things didn’t go through for some reason it can do no harm to have Union presence. As it turns out, the OP has asked the Union to get involved, though a paid official might be better than a local rep.
I have been involved in a similar case where the employee (with four & a half years service) was offered nothing apart from a preserved pension when they would reach age 65. Their Union rep (paid official) got involved & suddenly the employee was offered a Short Service Gratuity lump sum payment plus they signed away their preserved pension rights & got a refund of most of the superannuation payments that they had paid during their service (less tax). As far as I can remember they were entitled to this payment as they had less than five years service. They ended up, between the two payments, receiving almost €19,000.
It’s not that the HR dept were attempting to ‘do’ the employee out of money – it was the case that the HR person (who was at the time meant to be an expert in the superannuation area) with whom they were dealing was not aware of the existence of this gratuity. When prompted by the Union official the HR person came across the information, which he had ‘filed away’ some years earlier. It is for this reason that I recommend that any calculations be checked & verified by the OP’s Union rep.
I would add that the calculations had to be gone over more than once at the time, as in this case there was some backdated promotion involved, & the final figure ended up being more favourable than the first one. The OP’s situation would possibly be more straightforward, but considering that the situation is the exception rather than the norm, it can do no harm to have representation from an independent third party.