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Uncompleted return by instalments of repaid contributions
     C14.  - (1) This regulation applies where instalments are payable by a person under regulation C13(5) or (7).

    (2) If before all the instalments have been paid - 

(a) the person becomes entitled to payment of retirement benefits; or

(b) a death grant becomes payable in respect of him,

the balance outstanding, adjusted for early payment, shall be deducted from the appropriate terminal sum and the return of the contributions shall be treated as having been completed.

    (3) This paragraph applies where the instalments are payable under regulation C13(5) and before they have all been paid the person - 

(a) ceases to be in full-time pensionable employment; and

(b) does not become entitled to payment of retirement benefits; and

(c) continues in part-time pensionable employment or in comparable service.

    (4) Where paragraph (3) applies - 

(a) the person may elect to pay the balance outstanding by instalments under regulation C13(7); and

(b) if he does not so elect, he shall make a single payment of the balance outstanding, adjusted for early payment.

    (5) This paragraph applies where before all the instalments have been paid - 

(a) the person ceases to be in pensionable employment or in comparable service; and

(b) neither paragraph (2) nor paragraph (3) applies.

    (6) Where paragraph (5) applies - 

(a) the person may, if he elects to pay additional contributions for a current period under regulation C6 or C7, elect to pay the balance outstanding by instalments under regulation C13(7) (but payable at the same time as the additional contributions); and

(b) if he does not so elect, he shall make a single payment of the balance outstanding, adjusted for early payment.

    (7) Where paragraph (3) or (5) applies and the person has not within 3 months after the end of the relevant employment - 

(a) made a payment under paragraph (4)(b) or (6)(b); or

(b) made any election he could have made under paragraph (4)(a) or (6)(a),

the amount of the instalments already paid shall be repaid to him.

    (8) Where - 

(a) a person who has elected as mentioned in regulation C13(3)(b) is in part-time pensionable employment or in comparable service and an instalment has not been paid by the due date; or

(b) a person has made an election under paragraph (4)(a) and an instalment has not been paid by the due date; or

(c) a person has made an election under paragraph (6)(a) and an instalment is not paid by 21st April in the financial year following that in which it fell due,

then, unless within 3 months he makes a single payment of the balance outstanding, adjusted for early payment, the amount of the instalments already paid shall be repaid to him.

Deduction, payment and recovery of contributions
     C15.  - (1) The employer of a person in pensionable employment shall deduct from the employee's salary each month - 

(a) the contributions payable under regulation C2(1);

(b) any additional contributions payable in accordance with Part I of Schedule 4 as a result of an election under regulation C3;

(c) any additional contributions payable by virtue of regulation C5 or C8; and

(d) any instalments payable under regulation C13(5),

and any amount not so deducted in any month shall be deducted from the employee's salary no later than 30th April next following the end of the financial year in which it ought to have been deducted.

    (2) If and so far as deductions are not made under paragraph (1), any sum remaining due shall be paid by the employee to the Department on receipt of a written demand specifying that sum.

    (3) If a sum is not paid within 6 weeks after the date of the written demand, made in accordance with paragraph (2), interest shall be payable on it at 4 per cent per annum, compounded with yearly rests, from the expiry of the 6 weeks to the date of payment.

    (4) Without prejudice to any other means of recovery, any sum due to the Department under paragraph (2) or (3) may be recovered by deducting it from any benefits payable under Part E.

    (5) Amounts due from a person under this Part which are not deductible under paragraph (1) shall be paid by him to the Department.

    (6) If any amount to which paragraph (5) applies, except one due under regulation C6, C7, C13 or C14, is not paid within 6 months after the end of the period to which it relates, but remains payable, interest shall be payable on it at 4 per cent per annum, compounded with yearly rests, from the expiry of the 6 months to the date of payment.

Exclusion from reckonable service
     D2. The following shall not count as reckonable service - 

(a) any contributions refund period; and

(b) any period in respect of which a transfer value has been paid under regulation F1 or a cash equivalent has been paid.

Past period for which additional contributions have been paid
     D3.  - (1) A person - 

(a) who has paid additional contributions for a past period in accordance with Part II of Schedule 4; or

(b) in respect of whom payment of additional contributions for a past period in accordance with Part II of Schedule 4 has been made,

is entitled to count the past period as reckonable service.

    (2) A person who - 

(a) has paid any additional contributions for a past period in accordance with Part I of Schedule 4; or

(b) has continued to pay additional contributions for a past period in accordance with Schedule 5,

is entitled to count as reckonable service a period calculated in accordance with Schedule 7.

Current period for which additional contributions have been paid
     D4.  - (1) A person who has paid additional contributions for a current period in accordance with regulation C6 is entitled - 

(a) if he was in full-time pensionable employment immediately before the start of the period, to count as reckonable service the period in respect of which they were paid; or

(b) if he was then in part-time pensionable employment, to count as reckonable service the proportion of the period that would have counted under regulation D1 if he had continued in that employment.

    (2) A person who has paid additional contributions for a current period in accordance with regulation C7 is entitled to count as reckonable service the period specified in regulation C7(2).

(a) unless on the cessation of the pensionable employment he is entitled to a retirement pension at a higher rate, he is from the date on which he attains state pensionable age entitled to a pension at a weekly rate equal to his guaranteed minimum;

(b) if he attains state pensionable age while in pensionable employment, continues in the same employment for a further period of 5 years and does not then cease to hold it, he is (unless he consents to a postponement of the entitlement) entitled from the end of that period to so much of his retirement pension as equals his guaranteed minimum;

(c) in the case of a man who dies at any time and leaves a widow, unless she is entitled to a widow's pension at a higher rate she is, during any such period as is mentioned in section 13 of the Pensions Act[18], entitled to a pension at a weekly rate equal to half his guaranteed minimum; and

(d) in the case of a woman who dies at any time leaving a widower who is not entitled to a widower's pension at a higher rate, in circumstances prescribed under section 13(6) of the Pensions Act, the widower is entitled to a pension payable for the period so prescribed.

    (4) The weekly rate of a widower's pension payable under paragraph (3)(d) is half of that part of the deceased's guaranteed minimum which is attributable to earnings factors for the tax year 1988-89 and ending with the tax year 1996-7.

    (5) In paragraph (4) "earnings factors" means the earnings factors referred to in section 10(2) of the Pensions Act.

Nature of retirement benefits
     E2. Retirement benefits consist of - 

(a) a retirement pension; and

(b) a retirement lump sum,

calculated in accordance with this Part.

Qualification for retirement benefits
     E3.  - (1) A person is qualified for retirement benefits if - 

(a) immediately before 6th April 1988 he would but for his age have been entitled under regulation 48 of the 1977 Regulations to payment of an annual allowance and an additional allowance; or

(b) an appropriate qualifying period has been completed.

    (2) A qualifying period, which may be discontinuous, comprises every period of a kind described in Schedule 8 excluding any contributions refund period.

    (3) If the person - 

(a) was in pensionable employment, or paying contributions for a current period under regulation 27 of the 1977 Regulations on 6th April 1988; or

(b) entered pensionable employment after 6th April 1988 without having been in such employment before that date,

any qualifying period of 2 years is an appropriate one.

    (4) If paragraph (3) does not apply but the person was in pensionable employment before 6th April 1988 and subsequently entered pensionable employment again after that date, any qualifying period of - 

(a) two years beginning on or after 6th April 1988; or

(b) such period beginning on or after 6th April 1988 as will, when taken with every period before 6th April 1988 of a kind described in Schedule 4 to the 1977 Regulations, amount to 5 years whichever is the shorter, is an appropriate one.

    (5) For the purposes of paragraph (4) any period of the kind described in paragraph 3 of Schedule 8 (transfer value accepted) shall be treated as having begun after 5th April 1988.

    (6) Notwithstanding that an appropriate qualifying period has not been completed, a person is qualified for retirement benefits - 

(a) subject to paragraph (7), if he has a guaranteed minimum in relation to benefits under these Regulations; or

(b) if a transfer value was paid in respect of him by the Department to the superannuation scheme of the Commission of the European Communities and one has since been received by the Department from that scheme.

    (7) If a contributions equivalent premium is paid by the Department, paragraph (6)(a) shall be treated as not having applied.

Entitlement to payment of retirement benefits
     E4.  - (1) Subject to regulation E33(2) (payment of benefits), a person qualified for retirement benefits becomes entitled to payment of them in any of the Cases described in this regulation.

    (2) In Case A (normal age retirement) the person - 

(a) has attained the age of 60;

(b) has ceased to be in pensionable employment; and

(c) is not within Case B, C, D, E or F.

    (3) In Case B (female early age retirement) the person - 

(a) has not attained the age of 60;

(b) has attained the age of 55;

(c) is female;

(d) first entered pensionable employment prior to 1st April 1972;

(e) has ceased to be in pensionable employment;

(f) has been in pensionable employment or employed in external service as defined in regulation 5 of the 1972 Regulations as originally made or qualifying service as defined in regulation 6 of the 1972 Regulations as originally made for a total of not less than 30 years of which not less than 10 years was reckonable service or employment in external service as so defined; and

(g) is not within Case F.

    (4) In Case C (infirmity retirement) the person - 

(a) has ceased after 31st March 1972 and before attaining the age of 60 to be in pensionable employment;

(b) is incapacitated and became so before attaining the age of 60; and

(c) is not within Case F;

and where the pensionable employment ceased on or after 2nd November 1998, the Department has not notified him in writing that it has exercised, or is considering the exercise of its powers under regulation 9 of the Teachers' (Eligibility) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997[19] to prohibit or restrict his employment or further employment on grounds of his misconduct;

    (5) In Case D (infirmity retirement at normal retirement age where incapacitated before that age) the person - 

(a) has attained the age of 60;

(b) has ceased after 31st March 1972 (and after attaining that age) to be in pensionable employment, but would have ceased to be in such employment before attaining that age had not the employment continued beyond the attainment of that age due to a period of paid sick leave; and

(c) has become incapacitated before attaining that age; and

(d) is not within case F,

and where the pensionable employment ceased on or after 2nd November 1998, the Department has not notified him in writing that it has exercised, or is considering the exercise of its powers under regulation 9 of the Teachers' (Eligibility) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 to prohibit or restrict his employment or further employment on grounds of his misconduct.

    (6) In Case E the person - 

(a) has attained the age of compulsory retirement; and

(b) is in an employment which would be pensionable employment but for regulation B3(1)(a).

    (7) In Case F (premature retirement) the person - 

(a) has not attained the age of 60;

(b) has attained the age of 50;

(c) has ceased after attaining the age of 50 to be - 


(i) in pensionable employment;

(ii) in excluded employment; or

(iii) in employment which would be pensionable but for the fact that the person has not made an election under B1(4); and



(d) is not within Case B or C; and

his employer has notified the Department in writing that his pensionable employment was terminated by reason of his redundancy or in the interests of the efficient discharge of the employer's functions.

    (8) Where the employer has notified the Department in Case F that employment is to be terminated in the interests of the efficient discharge of the employer's functions the Department shall approve the reason for such termination.

    (9) In Cases A, B and E the entitlement takes effect as soon as the person falls within the Case.

    (10) In Cases C and D the entitlement takes effect - 

(a) where immediately before the person became incapacitated he was in employment of the type described in paragraph (7)(c)(ii) or (iii), on the day after the last day of his employment; and

(b) as soon as the person falls within the Case or would have fallen within the Case had the Department not notified him that it had exercised, or was considering the exercise of its powers, under regulation 9 of the Teachers' (Eligibility) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997; or

(c) if later, 6 months before the date of the last of any medical reports considered by the Department in determining under regulation H6 that the person has become incapacitated.

    (11) In Case F the entitlement takes effect as from the day after the end of the employment.

    (12) In no Case shall a person be regarded as having ceased to be in pensionable employment until not less than one day has passed without that person being in pensionable employment.

Amount of retirement pension
     E5.  - (1) Subject to paragraphs (2) to (4) and regulations E7 to E10 and regulation H1, the annual rate of a person's retirement pension is 1/80th of his average salary multiplied by his effective reckonable service.

    (2) If - 

(a) the person is entitled to count a period as reckonable service by virtue of regulation D3 (past period purchased by additional contributions); and

(b) by reason of regulation E32(4) part of that period does not count in calculating his retirement lump sum,

the annual rate calculated in accordance with paragraph (1) is, in respect of each year comprised in that part, increased by 1/350th of his average salary.

    (3) If - 

(a) the person has a guaranteed minimum in relation to employment up to 6th April 1997; and

(b)



A exceeds B,

where - 

A is the annual equivalent of his guaranteed minimum pension together with that of any equivalent pension benefits; and

B is the annual rate calculated in accordance with paragraphs (1) and (2),

the annual rate of his retirement pension is A.    (4) If a contributions equivalent premium has been paid in respect of the person and has not been refunded (and his entitlement to a guaranteed minimum pension is therefore extinguished) the annual rate of his retirement pension is reduced by the annual equivalent of the guaranteed minimum pension to which he would otherwise have been entitled.

Notes

[18] 1993 c. 49 as amended by S.I. 1995/3213 (N.I. 22) Article 147 and Schedule 3 paragraph 20back

[19] S.R. 1997 No. 312back

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