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SOCIAL SECURITY PENSIONS (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1975 - SECT 74

74.Para.(1), with Schedule 5, effects amendments; para.(2), with Schedule 6,
effects repeals

(3) Without prejudice to any provision made by Schedule 5, references in any
enactment to benefit under the principal Act shall, except where the context
otherwise requires, be construed as including references to benefit under Part
III of this Order.

1. Where a person defers his retirement from regular employment after
attaining pensionable age, the rate of his Category A or Category B retirement
pension shall be increased by an amount equal to the aggregate of the
increments to which he is entitled under paragraph 2, but only if that amount
is enough to increase the rate of the pension by at least 1 per cent.

2.(1) Subject to paragraph 3, a person is entitled to an increment under this
paragraph for each complete incremental period in his period of deferment.

(2) In this Schedule

(a)"incremental period" means any period of [six days which are treated by
regulations as days of increment for the purposes of this Schedule in relation
to the person and the pension in question; and]

(b)"period of deferment",

[(i)in relation to any person who attains pensionable age after 5th April
1979, means the period beginning with the date on which he attains that age
and ending with the day before that of his retirement;

(ii)in relation to any person who reaches pensionable age before 6th April
1979, means the period beginning with that date and ending with the day before
the date of his retirement.]

(3) Subject to paragraph 3, the amount of the increment for any such
incremental period shall be [1/7th] per cent. of the weekly rate of the
Category A or Category B retirement pension to which that person would have
been entitled for the period if he had retired on attaining pensionable age.

(4) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (3) the weekly rate of the pension for
any period shall be taken to [include] any increase under section 28(7) of the
principal Act (invalidity) and any increase under paragraph 4 [or 4A] but not
any increase under section 41, 45 or 46 of the principal Act (child and adult
dependants) or any graduated retirement benefit.

(5) Where one or more orders have come into force under section 120 of the
principal Act (increases in rates of benefit) during the period of deferment
the rate for any incremental period shall be determined ... as if the order or
orders had come into force before the beginning of the period of deferment.

[(6) Where a pensioner's rights premium is paid in respect of a person who is,
or if he had retired from regular employment would be, entitled to a Category
A or Category B retirement pension, then, in calculating any increment under
this paragraph which falls to be paid to him in respect of such a pension
after the date on which the premium is paid there shall be disregarded any
guaranteed minimum pension to which the pensioner was entitled in connection
with the employment to which the premium relates.]

[3. Regulations may provide that sub-paragraphs (1) to (3) of paragraph 2
shall have effect with such additions, omissions and amendments as are
prescribed in relation to a person during whose period of deferment there has
been a change, other than a change made by such an order as is mentioned in
sub-paragraph (5) of that paragraph, in the rate of the Category A or Category
B retirement pension to which he would have been entitled if he had retired
from regular employment on attaining pensionable age; and the regulations may
make such consequential additions, omissions and amendments in paragraph 5(3)
as the Department considers are appropriate in consequence of any changes made
by virtue of this paragraph in paragraph 2.]

4.(1) Where a woman is entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement
pension and

(a)she has had a husband and he has died, and she was married to him when he
died; and

(b)the husband either

(i)was entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement pension with an
increase under this Schedule; or

(ii)would have been so entitled if he had retired on the date of his death,

(2) Where a man is entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement pension
and

(a)he has had a wife and she has died, and he was married to her when she
died; and

(b)he was over pensionable age when she died; and

(c)the wife either

(i)was entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement pension with an
increase under this Schedule; or

(ii)would have been so entitled if she had retired on the date of her death,

[(3) Where

(a)there is a period between the death of the former spouse and the date on
which the surviving spouse becomes entitled to a Category A or Category B
retirement pension, and

(b)one or more orders have come into force under section 120 of the principal
Act (increases in rates of benefit) during that period,

[(4) The preceding provisions of this paragraph shall not apply in any case
where the deceased spouse died before 6th April 1979 and the widow or widower
attained pensionable age before that date.]

[4A.(1) Where a woman is entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement
pension and

(a)she has had a husband and he has died and she was married to him when he
died; and

(b)the husband either

(i)was entitled to a guaranteed minimum pension with an increase under Article
37(6); or

(ii)would have been so entitled if he had retired on the date of his death,

(2) Where a man is entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement pension
and

(a)he has had a wife and she has died, and he was married to her when she
died; and

(b)he was over pensionable age when she died; and

(c)the wife either

(i)was entitled to a guaranteed minimum pension with an increase under Article
37(6); or

(ii)would have been so entitled if she had retired on the date of her death,

(3) The "appropriate amount" means either

(a)the amount by which the deceased person's Category A or Category B
retirement pension had been increased by an order under section 120 of the
principal Act corresponding to an order under section 126A of the Social
Security Act 1975, or

(b)the amount by which his Category A or Category B retirement pension would
have been so increased had he died immediately before his surviving spouse
became entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement pension,

5.(1) For the purposes of paragraphs 1 to 3 in their application to a Category
B retirement pension to which a married woman is entitled by virtue of her
husband's contributions, a married woman who retires (or is deemed by virtue
of section 27(5) of the principal Act to retire) before her husband shall be
treated as deferring her retirement until he retires and her period of
deferment shall accordingly be treated as ending with the day before that of
his retirement.

(2) References in sub-paragraph (1) to the retirement of a woman's husband
shall, where the marriage is terminated before he retires, be construed as
references to the termination of the marriage.

(3) In the case of

(a)a Category B retirement pension to which a married woman is entitled by
virtue of her husband's contributions; or

(b)a married woman's Category A retirement pension with an increase under
Article 12(2) attributable to her husband's contributions.

(4) Paragraph 4(2)(c) shall not apply to a Category B retirement pension to
which the wife was or would have been entitled by virtue of the man's
contributions; and where the Category A retirement pension to which the wife
was or would have been entitled includes an increase under Article 12(2)
attributable to his contributions, the increase to which he is entitled under
that paragraph shall be calculated as if there had been no increase under that
Article.

1. In relation to employments which are or at any time have been
contracted-out employments, and to the operation of schemes by reference to
which such employments are or have been contracted-out, provision may be made
by regulations

(a)for treating an earner's employment, where it ends before a person succeeds
to the business of the earner's employer, as having been employment under the
employer's successor;

(b)for disregarding changes in an earner's employment due to the death of an
employer or other cause, or any cesser of contracted-out employment so due, or
for treating employment under one employer as a continuation of that under
another and treating any contracting-out certificate issued to, or election
made by, the former employer as issued to or made by the latter;

(c)for disregarding temporary interruptions in an earner's employment or
contracted-out employment, and for treating the employment in either case as
continuing during the interruption; and

(d)generally as to the circumstances in which an earner's employment is or is
not to be treated as having begun, or as having come to an end;

2. Regulations may enable the Occupational Pensions Board to determine, in
prescribed circumstances, that an earner, or any group of earners whose
employment falls within a particular category or description of contracted-out
employments, has been in such employment from a date earlier than would
otherwise be the case, not being, in the case of an earner within the scope of
the determination, a date earlier than that on which his relevant employment
began or a contracting-out certificate was issued in respect of it, whichever
is the later.

3. Provision may be made by regulations for requiring an employer to give
notice to the Department when an earner's employment becomes or ceases to be
contracted-out employment and when an earner's employment in contracted-out
employment begins or ends.

4.(1) Regulations may, in relation to any method adopted in an occupational
pension scheme for making ascertainable its requisite benefits, provide for
adjusting figures so as to avoid fractional amounts and otherwise to
facilitate computation.

(2) Regulations may require employers of earners (whether or not for the time
being in contracted-out employment) to notify earners and others, in the
prescribed manner, of the method by which the requisite benefits of any
occupational pension scheme fall to be calculated under the scheme and any
regulations applicable thereto.

5.(1) Regulations may modify the provisions of Part IV in their application to
cases in which a person is employed at the same time in two or more
employments (whether or not under the same employer), being employments of
which at least one is contracted-out employment but which are not all
contracted-out employments, with a view to enabling the employments to be
treated either separately or together for the purposes of that Part.

(2) Regulations may modify the provisions of Part IV in their application to
cases in which

(a)any description of benefit under a scheme is subject to a limit (however
imposed) operating so as to prevent service beyond a particular length from
qualifying for further benefits;

(b)earners qualify for the benefits of a scheme by reference not only to
service in contracted-out employment but also to service in the same or
another employment (whether or not contracted-out employment) before the
scheme was contracted-out in relation to them or their employment;

6.(1) Regulations may make provision for requiring persons to furnish the
Department or the Occupational Pensions Board with such information as the
Department or the Board may require for the purposes of Articles 44 to 51.

(2) In relation to employed earners who, in any period of service in
contracted-out employment

(a)have been paid earnings in any income tax week by more than one person in
respect of different employments; or

(b)have worked under the general control or management of a person other than
their immediate employer;

(3) Regulations may, in relation to state scheme premiums, provide

(a)for dispensing with the payment of a premium where its amount would be
inconsiderable;

(b)for treating a premium payable in respect of any person as actually paid
where the failure to pay is shown not to have been with the consent or
connivance of, or attributable to any negligence on the part of, that person;

(c)for treating a premium wrongly paid, or paid as to the wrong amount, as
paid (wholly or in part) in discharge of a liability for another premium or
for contributions under Part I of the principal Act;

(d)for the return of premiums paid in error or, in prescribed circumstances,
of premiums as to which the Department is satisfied that they ought to be
repaid;

(e)for the Department, in prescribed circumstances where a premium has been
paid in respect of a person, to direct the payment out of the National
Insurance Fund to that person or his estate of an amount equal to a prescribed
part of the premium;

(f)for any other matters incidental to the payment, collection or return of
premiums;

[(4) Without prejudice to sub-paragraph (3), regulations may provide

(a)that for the purpose of extinguishing accrued rights to guaranteed minimum
pensions and rights to receive such pensions a state scheme premium is to be
treated as actually paid on a date determined under the regulations;

(b)for disregarding the effect of regulations made by virtue of head (a) in a
case where the premium in question is not paid on or before the date when it
becomes payable or such later date as may be determined under the regulations;
and

(c)for obtaining repayment of benefits paid by virtue of regulations so made
in a case where the effect of the regulations is to be disregarded, and, where
the repayment is obtained from assets of the relevant scheme, for reducing the
sums payable under the scheme to the beneficiary by the amount of the
repayment.]

7.(1) Regulations may modify Articles 33 to 50 in their application to
employments in the case of which earners under different employers qualify by
virtue of their respective service in those employments for the benefits of
the same occupational pension scheme.

(2) Regulations under this paragraph may provide

(a)for the trustees or managers of the scheme instead of the employer to be
subject to the liabilities imposed by Articles 44 to 47;

(b)for the adjustment (whether as a consequence of any provision made under
paragraph (a) or otherwise) of rights and liabilities as between employers,
earners and the trustees or managers.

8.(1) In relation to employments of any class to which this paragraph applies,
[the appropriate government department] may by regulations

(a)direct that elections with a view to the issue, variation or surrender of
contracting-out certificates shall be made and revoked by [that department]
instead of by the employer;

(b)make provision for other things which by or under Part IV are required or
authorised to be done by or to an employer to be done instead by or to [that
department];

(c)make provision for treating any employments of the class in question as
employments under a single employer different from the employer in any other
employment;

(d)make provision for the recovery by [that department] of any state scheme
premium from any person where it has been paid by it instead of by that
person.

(2) Before making any regulations under this paragraph [the appropriate
government department] shall consult with such bodies concerned with
employments of the class in question as appear to it fairly to represent the
interests of the employers and earners in those employments.

(3) Subject to sub-paragraphs (4) and (5), the employments in which an
earner's service qualifies him for benefit under any of Articles 9 to 12 of
the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 shall constitute a class to
which this paragraph applies.

(4) Where service in any employment would qualify a person as aforesaid under
any of the enactments specified in sub-paragraph (3) but for regulations
having effect under the said Order of 1972 which allow arrangements made in
connection with a previous employment to continue in force, the employment
shall be treated for the purposes of this paragraph as falling within the
class to which that enactment relates and as not falling within any other
class to which this paragraph applies.

(5) Where a local Act contains a provision for the payment of benefits in
respect of service which but for the provision would qualify a person for such
benefits under the enactments specified in sub-paragraph (3), that provision
shall be deemed to be included among the enactments so specified.

(6) In this paragraph "the appropriate government department" in relation to
any class of employment qualifying a person for benefit under any Article of
the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 means the department which
has power to make regulations under that Article.

9. Regulations may make provision for any incidental matters connected with
the provisions of Part IV in relation to any employment which is, has been or
may become contracted-out employment and for any incidental matters otherwise
connected with the provisions of that Part or this Schedule.

1. The following four paragraphs have effect for the interpretation of this
Schedule.

2. "Scheme" means an occupational pension scheme; and in relation to a scheme

(a)"relevant employment" means any employment to which the scheme applies;

(b)"long service benefit" means the benefits which will be payable under the
scheme, in accordance with legal obligation, to or in respect of a member of
the scheme on the assumption that he remains in relevant employment until he
attains normal pension age;

3.(1) "Pensionable service", in relation to a scheme and a member of it, means
service in relevant employment which qualifies the member (on the assumption
that it continues for the appropriate period) for long service benefit under
the scheme, including service before the appointed day.

(2) There shall be taken into account as pensionable service only actual
service; that is to say

(a)service notionally attributable for any purposes of the scheme is not to be
regarded as pensionable service; and

(b)no account is to be taken of scheme rules by which a period of service can
be treated for any purpose as being longer or shorter than it actually is.

4.(1) In relation to a scheme and a member's pensionable service under it
"normal pension age" is to be construed as follows.

(2) Where the scheme provides for the member only requisite benefits, "normal
pension age" means the earliest age at which the member is entitled to receive
his requisite benefits on retirement from relevant employment.

(3) In any other case "normal pension age" means the earliest age at which the
member is entitled to receive benefits (other than requisite benefits) on his
retirement from such employment.

(4) For the purposes of this paragraph there is to be disregarded any scheme
rule making special provision as to early retirement on grounds of ill-health
or otherwise.

5.(1) "Supplementary credits", in relation to a scheme and a member's
entitlement to its benefits, means any increase of benefit or additional
benefit to which the member may become entitled

(a)in consequence of any provision made by or under the scheme after he
becomes a member of it (to the extent that it applies to any previous
pensionable service of his);

(b)by reference to previous service of his (whether or not pensionable
service); or

(c)in such other circumstances as may be prescribed,

(2) "Purchased credits" means supplementary credits for which, under the rules
of the scheme, a member may or must make payment in whole or in part (whether
by means of additional contributions, or of deduction from benefit, or
otherwise, and whether separately for each credit or by one or more payments
for one or more credits).

(3) "Bonus credits" means supplementary credits other than purchased credits
or transfer credits.

6.(1) A scheme must provide so that where a member's service in relevant
employment is terminated before normal pension age and

(a)he has attained the age of 26; and

(b)he has at least 5 years' qualifying service,

(2) Subject to the following sub-paragraph, short service benefit must be made
payable as from normal pension age or, if in the member's case that age is
earlier than 60, then from the age of 60.

(3) Short service benefit payable on or in respect of the member's death after
normal pension age must be made payable as from his death or within such time
thereafter as long service benefit on or in respect of his death would be
payable.

(4) In applying sub-paragraphs (2) and (3) no regard is to be had to the
operation of any scheme rule, taking effect at any time after termination of
the member's pensionable service, as to what is normal pension age under the
scheme.

(5) A scheme must not provide for payment of short service benefit in the form
of a lump sum at any time before normal pension age, except in such
circumstances as may be prescribed.

7.(1) "5 years' qualifying service" means 5 years (whether a single period of
that duration or two or more periods, continuous or discontinuous, totalling 5
years) in which the member was at all times employed either

(a)in pensionable service under the scheme; or

(b)in service in contracted-out employment by reference to the scheme; or

(c)in linked qualifying service under another scheme,

(2) A period of service previously terminated is not to count towards the 5
years' qualifying service unless it counts towards qualification for long
service benefit, and need then count only to the same extent and in the same
way.

8.(1) A scheme must not contain any rule which results, or can result, in a
member being treated less favourably for any purpose relating to short service
benefit than he is, or is entitled to be, treated for the corresponding
purpose relating to long service benefit.

(2) The above does not apply to any rule in its application to members whose
pensionable service terminated before the rule came into force, except a rule
made after the termination of a member's pensionable service and resulting, or
capable of resulting, for him in any treatment less favourable than that to
which he would have been entitled but for the rule; nor does it apply to a
rule merely conferring a discretion on the scheme's trustees or managers, or
others, so long as it is not a rule requiring the discretion to be exercised
in any discriminatory manner against members in respect of their short service
benefit.

9.(1) Subject to the following sub-paragraph, a member's short service benefit
must either be payable (as mentioned in paragraph 6(2)) directly out of the
resources of the scheme or be assured to him by such means as may be
prescribed.

(2) Subject to the following sub-paragraphs, a scheme may, instead of
providing short service benefit, provide

(a)for the member's accrued rights to be transferred to another scheme
(whether contracted-out or not) with a view to the acquisition for him of
transfer credits under the other scheme; or

(b)for such alternatives to short service benefit as may be prescribed.

(3) Either of the alternatives specified in sub-paragraph (2)(a) and (b) may
be by way of complete or partial substitute for short service benefit, but
(except in such cases as may be prescribed) only with the member's consent.

(4) An alternative prescribed under sub-paragraph (2)(b) must not include any
payment by way of return of contributions, except in respect of

(a)a period of service before the appointed day; or

(b)a period of service of less than 5 years after that day if (and only if)
there has been such a payment in respect of a period of service before that
day.

10.(1) A scheme must provide for short service benefit to be computed on the
same basis as long service benefit.

(2) For this purpose, no account is to be taken of any rule making it
(directly or indirectly) a condition of entitlement to benefit that
pensionable service shall have been of any minimum duration.

(3) This paragraph does not apply to so much of any benefit as

(a)accrues at a higher rate, or otherwise more favourably, in the case of
members with a period of pensionable service of some specified minimum length,
or of those remaining in pensionable service up to some specified minimum age;
or

(b)is of an amount, or at a rate, unrelated to length of pensionable service
or to the number or amount of contributions paid by or for the member;

11. So far as any short service benefit is not required to be computed in
accordance with paragraph 10, it must be computed on the basis of uniform
accrual, bearing the same proportion to long service benefit at the time when
pensionable service is terminated as the period of that service bears to the
period from the beginning of that service to the time when the member would
attain normal pension age or such lower age as may be prescribed.

12.(1) Where long service benefit is related to a member's earnings at, or in
a specified period before, the time when he attains normal pension age, short
service benefit must be related, in a corresponding manner, to his earnings
at, or in the same period before, the time when his pensionable service is
terminated.

(2) A scheme must comply with any regulations relating to the basis of
computation of short service benefit, including regulations providing for the
avoidance of fractional amounts and otherwise to facilitate computation.

13.(1) If a scheme provides for long service benefit to include supplementary
credits, it must provide for such credits to be included in short service
benefit, and provide for all credits to be so included, subject to the
following sub-paragraphs.

(2) Where purchased credits have not been paid for in full at or before
termination of pensionable service

(a)if they were to be paid for by a fixed amount, the benefit must include so
much of the whole of the credits as bears the same proportion to them as the
amount which the member has paid bears to the full amount payable by him;

(b)if they were to be paid for otherwise than by a fixed amount, the benefit
must include such part of the credits as bears the same proportion to the
whole as the period between the time when the first payment became due and the
termination of the member's pensionable service bears to the whole period over
which payment was to be made.

(3) If the benefit includes bonus credits, or credits for which payment is to
be made by deduction from that or another benefit the credits to be included
in the benefit and (where applicable) the amount of the deduction must be
computed on the basis of the following assumptions

(a)that the credits accrue in full only to a member remaining in pensionable
service until normal pension age;

(b)that entitlement to any credit, and also the amount of any relevant
deduction, accrues at a uniform rate from the time when the credit was awarded
up to the time of his attaining that age.

(4) Where any such deduction from benefit as is referred to in sub-paragraph
(3) is a percentage of benefit, the percentage must be the same for short
service as for long service benefit.

(5) A scheme must comply with any regulations made with respect to the manner
in which the supplementary credits are to be included in short service
benefit, including regulations providing for the avoidance of fractional
amounts and otherwise to facilitate computation.

14.(1) A scheme which by its rules provides for increases of long service
benefit from time to time (whether by way of upwards re-valuation or
otherwise) must provide for corresponding increases of short service benefit
in the case of members whose pensionable service terminates at any time after
the coming into force of any such rule.

(2) Where provision to this effect is made in such a way as to involve the
exercise of a discretion in relation to increase of long service benefit, a
corresponding discretion must be conferred in relation to short service
benefit.

(3) If an increase of long service benefit is to take effect at a specified
time after termination of service, the corresponding increase of short service
benefit must take effect at the same time after the time when short service
benefit becomes payable.

(4) Where provision is made for increase of long service benefit otherwise
than at a fixed rate, short service benefit may nevertheless be subject to
increase at a fixed rate, so long as the rate is not less than 3 per cent. a
year compound.

15.(1) Except as provided by this paragraph, a scheme must contain rules
preventing assignment of short service benefit, and must not enable such
benefit to be surrendered or commuted.

(2) Provisions enabling assignment are permissible (whether assignment before
or after the benefit comes into payment) if it is assignment in favour of the
member's widow or a dependant of his.

(3) Provisions enabling surrender (at the option of the member) are
permissible where it is

(a)to provide benefit for the member's widow or a dependant of his;

(b)to acquire for the member entitlement to transfer credits under another
scheme;

(c)to acquire for the member entitlement to further benefits under the same
scheme, relating both to a period of pensionable service previously terminated
and also to a subsequent period of service in relevant employment.

(4) Provision may be made for a member's benefit to be commuted, but only

(a)in a case where he opts (at any time) to commute at or after normal pension
age; or

(b)in exceptional circumstances of serious ill-health; or

(c)in such other circumstances as may be prescribed;

(5) In respect of any of the benefits or rights alternative to short service
benefit provided in accordance with paragraph 9(2), this paragraph shall apply
with such modifications as may be prescribed.

16.(1) Except so far as permitted by this paragraph, and subject to
paragraph 17, a scheme must not contain any provision for forfeiture of short
service benefit.

(2) Provision may be made for forfeiture of the whole or part of any short
service benefit by reference to an event occurring after the benefit becomes
payable, but only an event by reference to which long service benefit would be
forfeited; and such a provision must not be in terms which in the opinion of
the Occupational Pensions Board appear to discriminate against members
entitled to short service benefit.

(3) Provision may be made for forfeiture by reference to

(a)the assignment or attempted assignment of the benefit contrary to the
provisions of the scheme;

(b)the member's bankruptcy or, in the case of benefit for a widow or dependant
of the member, the beneficiary's bankruptcy;

(4) Provision for forfeiture may be made

(a)in a public service pension scheme, by reference to the member being
convicted of an offence

(i)committed by him before the benefit becomes payable and in connection with
relevant employment, and

(ii)certified by a Minister of the Crown either to have been gravely injurious
to the State or to be liable to lead to serious loss of confidence in the
public service;

(b)in any case, by reference to the member having been convicted of any
offence committed before the benefit becomes payable, being

(i)an offence of treason, or

(ii)one or more offences under the Official Secrets Acts 1911 to 1939 for
which the member has been sentenced on the same occasion to a term of
imprisonment of, or to two or more consecutive terms amounting in the
aggregate to, at least 10 years.

17.(1) No rule must operate so as to deprive a person of short service benefit
(whether a member himself, or his widow or a dependant) by reference to

(a)failure by him or any other person to make a claim for the benefit or for
any payment due as benefit; or

(b)failure by him or any other person, at any time after termination of
relevant employment, to give any notice, or comply with any formality,
required by the scheme as a condition of entitlement.

(2) Sub-paragraph (1)(a) is not to prevent reliance on any enactment relating
to the limitation of actions; and in cases of failure to claim, the scheme may
provide for the right to receive any payment to be forfeited in the event of
its not being claimed within 6 years of the date on which it became due.

18.(1) A scheme must contain no rule enabling a member's employer to exercise
any description of charge or lien on, or set-off against, short service
benefit, to the extent that it includes transfer credits; but a charge or lien
on, or set-off against, a member's short service benefit is permissible
(insofar as it does not include transfer credits) for the purpose of enabling
the employer to obtain the discharge by the member of some monetary obligation
due to the employer and arising out of a criminal, negligent or fraudulent act
or omission by the member.

(2) No rule is to permit the employer to recover from, or retain out of, the
resources of the scheme any sum in respect of a monetary or other obligation
due to him from any member, except an obligation arising as mentioned in
sub-paragraph (1); and rules permitting such recovery or retainer must so
provide that

(a)in respect of any such obligation, recovery or retainer is limited to the
actuarial value of the member's actual or prospective benefits at that time,
or the amount of the obligation, whichever is the less (subject to any
different agreement in writing between the employer and the member); and

(b)the member is entitled to a certificate showing the amount retained or
recovered and its effect on his benefits or prospective benefits; and

(c)in the event of any dispute as to the amount to be retained or recovered,
the employer is not entitled to enforce the charge, lien or set-off except
after the obligation has become enforceable under an order of a competent
court or the award of an arbitrator.

19. In respect of any of the benefits or rights alternative to short service
benefit provided in accordance with paragraph 9(2), paragraphs 16 to 18 shall
apply with such modifications as may be prescribed.

20. Regulations may, in respect of any specified provision contained in
Part I, provide that a scheme is not to be treated as conforming with the
preservation requirements unless it contains express rules to the effect (but
not necessarily in the words) of that provision.

21. Regulations may modify Part I in relation to schemes with any overseas
element, that is to say, schemes established, or relating to employment, or
with parties domiciled, resident or carrying on business, in any part of the
world outside the United Kingdom, or otherwise not confined in their operation
to the United Kingdom.

22. Regulations may make provision as to the circumstances in which, for the
purposes of Part I

(a)a period of a person's service in two or more different employments is to
be treated as a period of service in one or more of those employments;

(b)a person's service in any employment is to be treated as terminated or not
terminated.

23. Regulations may modify Part I in its application to cases where an earner
is for the time being, or has been, employed in pensionable service under, or
in contracted-out employment by reference to, different schemes applying to
the same employment and these regulations may relate to service under or, as
the case may be, by reference to different schemes at the same time, or at
different times.

24. Regulations may make such provision modifying Part I as the Department
considers fit for securing that the preservation requirements include
requirements for provision to be made in a scheme as to the preservation of a
member's benefit in the event of the scheme being wound up.

25. Regulations may modify Part I in any manner which the Department considers
appropriate with a view to securing the orderly implementation of the
provisions of Article 59 and to obtaining general compliance with that
Article; and regulations made under this paragraph may include incidental and
supplementary provisions, including provisions appearing to the Department to
be required in consequence of different provisions of Part I being brought
into force at different times.

26. Without prejudice to any of the foregoing provisions, regulations may
provide for the preservation requirements to apply with such modifications and
exceptions as the Department considers to be necessary for particular cases or
classes of cases.

1. Section 144 of the principal Act shall have effect as if the debts
specified in subsection (2) of that section included any sum owed on account
of an earner's contributions to an occupational pension scheme, being
contributions deducted from earnings paid in the period of four months
immediately preceding the date of the relevant event or otherwise due in
respect of earnings paid or payable in that period.

2.(1) The said section 144 shall have effect as if the debts specified in
subsection (2) of that section also included any sum owed on account of an
employer's contributions to a contracted-out scheme, being contributions
payable

(a)in the period of 12 months immediately preceding the date of the relevant
event; and

(b)in respect of earners in contracted-out employment by reference to the
scheme towards the provision for those earners of guaranteed minimum pensions
under the scheme.

(2) In so far as contributions cannot from the terms of the scheme be
identified as falling within sub-paragraph (1), the amount of the debt having
priority by virtue of that sub-paragraph shall be deemed to be an amount equal
to

(a)7 per cent. of the total reckonable earnings paid or payable, in the period
of 12 months referred to in that sub-paragraph, to or for the benefit of
non-contributing earners; or

(b)45 per cent. of the total reckonable earnings paid or payable in that
period to or for the benefit of contributing earners.

(3) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (2)

(a)the earnings to be taken into account as reckonable earnings are those paid
or payable to or for the benefit of earners in contracted-out employment (by
reference to the scheme) in the whole or any part of the said period of 12
months; and

(b)earners are to be identified as contributing or non-contributing in
relation to service of theirs in contracted-out employment by reference to the
scheme according to whether or not in the period in question they were liable
under the terms of the scheme to contribute in respect of that service towards
the provision of pensions under the scheme.

(4) In this paragraph "employer" shall be construed in accordance with
regulations made under Article 2(4) and "reckonable earnings", in relation to
any employment, means the earner's earnings from that employment so far as
those earnings

(a)where comprised in any payment of earnings made to him or for his benefit
at a time when the employment was contracted-out employment; and

(b)exceeded the current lower earnings limit but not the current upper
earnings limit.

3.(1) The said section 144 shall have effect as if the debts specified in
subsection (2) of that section also included any sum owed on account of a
state scheme premium payable at any time before, or in consequence of, the
occurrence of the relevant event.

(2) Where any such premium is payable in respect of a period of service of
more than 12 months (taking into account any previous linked qualifying
service), the amount to be paid in priority by virtue of this paragraph shall
be limited to the amount of the premium that would have been payable if the
service had been confined to the last 12 months taken into account in fixing
the actual amount of the premium.

(3) Where

(a)by virtue of this paragraph the whole or part of a premium is required to
be paid in priority to other debts of the debtor or his estate; and

(b)the person liable for the payment would be entitled to recover the whole or
part of any sum paid on account of it from another person either under Article
48 or under any provision made by the relevant scheme for the purposes of that
Article or otherwise.

(4) The payment under sub-paragraph (3) of any amount in respect of a premium
shall have the same effect on the rights and liabilities of the person making
it (other than his liabilities under that sub-paragraph) as if it had been a
payment of that amount on account of the sum recoverable from him in respect
of a premium as mentioned in sub-paragraph (3)(b).

4. In this Schedule "the relevant event" has the meaning assigned to it by
Schedule 15 to the principal Act in relation to section 144(2) of that Act;
and references to a contracted-out scheme, contracted-out employment and a
state scheme premium include references to a contracted-out scheme,
contracted-out employment and a state scheme premium within the meaning of any
provisions in force in Great Britain and corresponding to the provisions of
this Order.

Schedule 5Amendments. Schedule 6Repeals

© 1975 Crown Copyright

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