The Health and Social Care Pension Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015

Change to employment or rate of pensionable earnings or allowances N.I.

3.—(1) If, at any time during the current scheme year, a member starts a new employment, the member must pay contributions in respect of the employment at the rate specified in column 2 of the table in paragraph (3) of regulation 30 in respect of the amount of pensionable earnings referred to in column 1 of that table which corresponds to the member's pensionable earnings determined in accordance with sub-paragraph (5).

(2) If at any time during the current scheme year, a change is made to a member's annual rate of pensionable earnings or pensionable allowances in respect of an existing employment, the member must pay contributions—

(a) from the first day of the next pay period immediately following the pay period in which the change is made at the rate specified in column 2 of the table in paragraph (3) of regulation 30 in respect of the amount of pensionable earnings referred to in column 1 of that table which corresponds to the member's pensionable earnings determined in accordance with sub-paragraph (5); and

(b) as if the member's employment had started on that date.

(3) Sub-paragraph (2) does not apply to a change made to a member's annual rate of pensionable allowances in respect of an existing employment that is determined by the member's employer to have been made in respect of—

(a) unplanned changes to the member's duties, or

(b) changes to the member's duties that are unlikely to last for more than 12 months.

(4) If the change to a member's pensionable earnings mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) is made in respect of an existing part-time employment, that sub-paragraph does not apply unless there is a corresponding change to the amount of pensionable earnings that would be paid to the member in respect of a whole-time comparable employment.

(5) Where sub-paragraph (1) or (2) applies the scheme manager must determine the member's pensionable earnings—

(a) if the employment is whole-time by applying the formula—

(b) if the employment is part-time by applying the formula—

where, for the purposes of this sub-paragraph:

• EPE is the pensionable earnings that the member's employing authority estimates will be payable to the member in respect of the employment mentioned in that sub-paragraph during the current scheme year;

• CWTE is the amount the scheme manager determines would have been paid in respect of a single comparable whole-time employment in respect of the member's part-time employment with the authority during that year; and

• NDPE is the number of days of pensionable employment from the date the employment starts to the end of that year.

(6) Sub-paragraph (7) applies if—

(a) sub-paragraph (1) applies to a member; and

(b) at the time the member becomes an active member in an employment falling within group A, B, or C in regulation 27(1), it is apparent that the member's pensionable earnings in the employment includes a variable amount.

(7) The variable amount mentioned in sub-paragraph (6)—

(a) is to be taken as such amount as the employing authority considers appropriate for the current scheme year; and

(b) in the case of a member who works part-time, is the variable amount that would be paid in respect of a comparable whole-time employment.