The Judicial Pensions (Guaranteed Minimum Pension) Order (Northern Ireland) 1995

Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Judicial Pensions (Guaranteed Minimum Pension) Order (Northern Ireland) 1995 and shall come into operation on 1st November 1995.

Interpretation

2.  In this Order—

“the Act” means the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993;

“the 1993 Act” means the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993;

“office-holder” means a person who holds, or has held, scheduled office;

“pensionable age” has the meaning given to it in the Act;

“qualifying judicial office” has the meaning given to it in section 1(6) of the 1993 Act;

“scheduled office” means an office listed in the Schedule;

“the scheme” means the occupational pension scheme constituted by Part I of the 1993 Act.

Application

3.  This Order shall apply in relation to an office-holder who is a member of the scheme by virtue of section I of the 1993 Act.

Entitlement to a pension

4.—(1) An office-holder who attains pensionable age and who has ceased to hold scheduled office shall be entitled to receive, from that age, not less than the guaranteed minimum pension, the weekly rate of which shall be calculated in accordance with section 10, section 12(1) and (5) and section 14 of the Act, unless accrued rights have been extinguished under section 56 of the Act.

(2) The commencement of the office-holder’s guaranteed minimum pension may be postponed—

(a) for a period, not exceeding five years, for which he continues to hold scheduled office after attaining pensionable age;

(b) with his consent, for a period exceeding five years for which he continues to hold scheduled office after attaining pensionable age; or

(c) with his consent, for a period for which he continues in employment after attaining pensionable age otherwise than in scheduled office;

and in such a case section 11 of the Act shall apply to the calculation of the guaranteed minimum pension.

(3) An office-holder—

(a) who attains pensionable age;

(b) who has ceased to hold scheduled office;

(c) to whom section 9(2) of the Act applies; and

(d) who does not have a guaranteed minimum under sections 10 to 12 of the Act,

shall be entitled to receive, from that age, a pension not less than the amount which would be determined as the office-holder’s guaranteed minimum, calculated in accordance with paragraph (1), were section 10(3)(b) not to apply to that office-holder.

(4) An office-holder shall be treated as not ceasing to hold office for the purpose of this Order where he moves from one qualifying judicial office to another.

(5) The pension payable under this Article shall continue for the life of the office-holder.

Surviving spouse’s guaranteed minimum pension

5.—(1) As from the date of death of an office-holder, whether before or after attaining pensionable age, his surviving spouse shall be entitled to receive a guaranteed minimum pension the weekly rate of which shall be no less than the guaranteed minimum ascertained in accordance with section 13(2) and (3) or (4) of the Act as appropriate.

(2) Paragraph (1) shall apply, in the case of a widow for the period mentioned in section 13(5) of the Act and in the case of a widower, in the circumstances prescribed under section 13(6) of that Act.

(3) Paragraph (1) shall not apply if—

(a) at the date of his death the office-holder’s accrued rights to a guaranteed minimum pension have been extinguished under section 56 of the Act; or

(b) the surviving spouse’s accrued rights are extinguished under that section.

Contribution in the event of marriage during retirement

6.—(1) Where an office-holder is unmarried on the date that he ceases to hold office, he may be required to undertake that, in return for payment of a lump sum to him under the scheme, he will on his first marriage afterwards pay a contribution in respect of the benefits that may become payable to his surviving spouse by virtue of Article 5.

(2) The contribution referred to in paragraph (1) shall be calculated in ccordance with the formula ((A × B)/200) × 3.4 where—

(a) A is the number of years and days of actual and notional relevant service in the scheme (expressed in years and fractions of a year) which were—

(i) completed by him before he obtained pensionable age, and

(ii) not years—

(1) during any part of which he was married, or

(2) preceding a marriage of his contracted before he ceased to hold scheduled office; and

(b) B is such amount of the office-holder’s final annual salary which, expressed as a weekly rate, exceeds the lower earnings limit but does not exceed the upper earnings limit at the date he ceases to hold scheduled office.

(3) Service is not relevant service for the purposes of this Article if—

(a) in the case of a male office-holder, it is service before 6th April 1978;

(b) in the case of a female office-holder, it is service before 6th April 1988.

(4) In this Article—

(a) “final annual salary” in relation to an office-holder means the annual rate of salary he was receiving immediately before he ceased to hold scheduled office:

(b) “notional service” means the period of service credited to an office-holder who transfers in to the scheme from another judicial pension scheme, on the date of his transfer in to that scheme, calculated in accordance with the Judicial Pensions (Transfer Between Judicial Pension Schemes) Regulations 1995(1).

Time of payment

7.  Any pension to which there is an entitlement by virtue of this Order shall be payable at intervals of not more than three months.

Relationship to other benefits

8.  Any pension to which there is an entitlement by virtue of this Order shall be reckoned towards and treated as part of any pension paid in relation to the office-holder under the scheme.

Mackay of Clashfern, C.

Dated 10th October 1995