The Pension Sharing (Pension Credit Benefit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

Commutation of the whole of pension credit benefit

3.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4) and regulation 9 of the Safeguarded Rights Regulations (ways of giving effect to safeguarded rights—salary related schemes), the circumstances in which the whole of the pension credit benefit may be commuted for the purposes of section 97C(2)(1) (payment of pension credit benefit in the form of a lump sum before normal benefit age) are those described in paragraph (2).

(2) The circumstances described in this paragraph are that—

(a) the person entitled to the pension credit benefit is suffering from serious ill health prior to normal benefit age, or

(b) the aggregate of total benefits payable to the person under an occupational pension scheme, including any pension credit benefit, does not exceed £260 per annum.

(3) This regulation does not apply to an occupational pension scheme which is approved under section 590 of the Taxes Act (mandatory approval).

(4) In this regulation, “serious ill health” means ill health which is such as to give rise to a life expectancy of less than one year from the date on which commutation of the pension credit benefit is applied for.

(1)

Section 97C is inserted by Article 34 of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999