Social Security Pensions Act 1975

30 Contracted-out employment. E+W+S

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the employment of an earner in employed earner’s employment is contracted-out employment in relation to him during any period in which he is under pensionable age and—

(a) his service in the employment is for the time being service which qualifies him for [F1 a guaranteed minimum pension provided by] an occupational pension scheme [F2 or his employer makes minimum payments in respect of the earner’s employment to a money purchase contracted-out scheme]; and

(b) the scheme is a contracted-out scheme in relation to that employment; and

(c) there is in force a certificate, issued by the Occupational Pensions Board and known as a “contracting-out certificate”, that the employment is contracted-out employment by reference to the scheme.

[F3 (1A) The minimum payment in respect of an earner for any tax week shall be the rebate percentage of so much of the earnings paid to or for the benefit of the earner as exceeds the lower earnings limit for the tax week but does not exceed the upper earnings limit for it; and in this subsection “rebate percentage” means the percentage arrived at by adding—

(a) the percentage by which for the time being under section 27(2) above the contracted-out percentage of primary Class 1 contributions is less than the normal percentage; and

(b) the percentage by which for the time being under that subsection the contracted-out percentage of secondary Class 1 contributions is less than the normal percentage.

(1B) The references to the upper and lower earnings limits in subsection (1A) above are references, in the case of an earner who is paid otherwise than weekly, to their prescribed equivalents under [F4 sections 6(1) and 8(3) of the Contributions and Benefits Act].

(1C) Regulations may make provision—

(a) for the manner in which, and time at which or period within which, minimum payments are to be made;

(b) for the recovery by employers of amounts in respect of the whole or part of minimum payments by deductions for earnings;

(c) for calculating the amounts payable according to a scale prepared from time to time by the Secretary of State or otherwise adjusting them so as to avoid fractional amounts or otherwise facilitate computation;

(d) for requiring that the liability in respect of a payment made in a tax week, in so far as the liability depends on any conditions as to a person’s age on retirement, shall be determined as at the beginning of the week or as at the end of it;

(e) for securing that liability is not avoided or reduced by a person following in the payment of earnings any practice which is abnormal for the employment in respect of which the earnings are paid;

(f) without prejudice to sub-paragraph (e) above, for enabling the Secretary of State, where he is satisfied as to the existence of any practice in respect of the payment of earnings whereby the incidence of minimum payments is avoided or reduced by means of irregular or unequal payments of earnings, to give directions for securing that minimum payments are payable as if that practice were not followed;

(g) for the intervals at which, for the purposes of minimum payments, payments of earnings are to be treated as made; and

(h) for this section to have effect, in prescribed cases, as if for any reference to a tax week there were substituted a reference to a prescribed period.]

(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F5

(3) Any contracting-out certificate for the time being in force in respect of an employed earner’s employment shall be conclusive that the employment is contracted-out employment.

(4) Regulations shall provide for the determination by the Board of any question whether an employment is to be treated as contracted-out employment or as to the persons in relation to whom, or the period for which, an employment is to be so treated.

(5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F6

Textual Amendments

F1 Words substituted (with effect from 1.11.1986) by Social Security Act 1986 (c. 50), Sch. 10, para. 15

F2 Words inserted (with effect from 6.4.1988) by Social Security Act 1986 (c. 50), Sch. 2 para. 4(a)

F3 S. 30(1A)–(1C) inserted (with effect from 6.4.1988) by Social Security Act 1986 (c. 50), Sch. 2, para. 4(b)

F4 Words substituted by Social Security (Consequential Provisions) Act 1992 (c. 6), Sch. 2, para. 25

F5 S. 30(2) repealed by Social Security Act 1986 (c. 50), Sch. 11

F6 S. 30(5) repealed by Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 (c. 44), Sch. 17