National Insurance (Non-participation—Assurance of Equivalent Pension Benefits) Regulations 1960

Part VI U.K. Miscellaneous Provisions

Extension of temporary interruptions and of assurance periods U.K.

18.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation, the Minister on application being made to him, may, for the purpose of paragraphs (2) and (3) of regulation 2, in any particular case or class of cases extend the period of thirteen contribution weeks referred to in those paragraphs for such further period or periods as he shall from time to time direct, so, however, that no such extension—

(a) shall [F1 unless the Minister in exceptional circumstances so allows] prolong the said period to more than one hundred and thirty weeks in all; or

(b) shall be granted save in the following cases, that is to say,

(i) the insured person's incapacity for work, where the Minister is satisfied that but for the incapacity the employment would continue or have continued; or

F2 (ii) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(iii) any other case in which the Minister, having regard to whether the insured person retains membership of the recognised superannuation scheme relating to the employment or other qualification for benefit thereunder and to any other relevant circumstances, is satisfied that the interruption can be regarded as temporary.

(2) Subject as aforesaid, the Minister, on application being made to him, may, for the purpose of all or any of the provisions of these regulations which require or authorise or make other provision with respect to the making of a payment in lieu of contributions, the giving of any notice or the doing of any other thing within (or not later than the end of) an assurance period, in any particular case or class of cases extend the assurance period for such further period or periods as he shall from time to time direct, so, however, that no such extension shall prolong the assurance period to more than sixty-five weeks in all [F3 unless the Minister is satisfied that the extension is required for the purpose only of remedying an error or omission made in seeking to comply with the provisions of these regulations and without failure to exercise due care and diligence ].

(3) In so extending any period the Minister may impose a condition that the employer or the insured person shall furnish the Minister with such information and give him notice of such events as he may reasonably require for the purpose of any provision of these regulations, and every such person shall observe or perform any such condition accordingly.

(4) An extension of any period under this regulation shall cease if the Minister by written notice to the employer so directs or if the insured person diesF4 ....

(5) Where at the end of any extension allowed in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (1) of this regulation no further such extension is allowed, but a new period of contribution liability has not begun in relation to the employment and the insured person is still living, the employment shall be treated, for the purpose of the provisions of Part II of the Act of 1959 relating to the making of a payment in lieu of contributions at the end of a person's period of service in a non-participating employment, as having come to an end upon the termination of the period of contribution liability or upon such later date, not being later than the end of the extension, as the Minister shall direct; and where the date on which the employment is so treated as having come to an end is a later date than the termination of that period of contribution liability, the provisions of regulation 3 shall apply to any contribution weeks in the intervening period as though they were weeks during which the employment would, apart from that regulation, fall to be treated for that purpose as having continued under paragraph (3) of regulation 2:

Provided that, in a case to which the provisions of paragraph (6) of regulation 2 apply, the references in this paragraph to the termination of the period of contribution liability shall be construed as references to the end of the contribution week immediately preceding the first contribution week beginning in the person's period of service.

(5A) [F5 If the employer so requests, the provisions of the last preceding paragraph shall apply at the end of the period of 13 weeks referred to in regulation 2(2) and (3) where no extension is allowed in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (1) of this regulation, as they apply at the end of such an extension.]

(6) In relation to an employment of any class to which section 12 of the Act of 1959 (which relates to certain statutory superannuation schemes) applies, or to an employment where the appropriate recognised superannuation scheme is established by or under the Superannuation Acts or by or under those Acts as applied by any enactment or other instrument having the force of law or by any instrument to which paragraph (3) of regulation 3 of the Benefits and Schemes Regulations applies, the foregoing provisions of this regulation shall be without prejudice to any special arrangements made by the Minister with the consent of the Treasury providing for the time and manner of any payment in lieu of contributions in such a case or otherwise concerning its making.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in reg. 18(1)(a) inserted (6.1.1964) by The National Insurance (Non-participation-Assurance of Equivalent Pension Benefits) Amendment (No.2) Regulations 1963 (S.I. 1963/1988), regs. 1, 8(2)

F2 Reg. 18(1)(b)(ii) revoked (29.7.1963) by The National Insurance (Non-participation-Assurance of Equivalent Pension Benefits) Amendment Regulations, 1963 (S.I. 1963/1265), regs. 1, 3

F3 Words in reg. 18(2) added (6.1.1964) by The National Insurance (Non-participation-Assurance of Equivalent Pension Benefits) Amendment (No.2) Regulations 1963 (S.I. 1963/1988), regs. 1, 8(3)

F4 Words in reg. 18(4) deleted (6.1.1964) by The National Insurance (Non-participation-Assurance of Equivalent Pension Benefits) Amendment (No.2) Regulations 1963 (S.I. 1963/1988), regs. 1, 8(4)

F5 Reg. 18(5A) inserted (6.1.1964) by The National Insurance (Non-participation-Assurance of Equivalent Pension Benefits) Amendment (No.2) Regulations 1963 (S.I. 1963/1988), regs. 1, 8(5)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 Reg. 18(1)(2)(5) modified (6.4.1975) by The National Insurance (Non-participation—Transitional Provisions) Regulations 1974 (S.I. 1974/2057), reg. 1(1), Sch. 3

Offences U.K.

19.  If any person fails without reasonable cause to give notice in accordance with the requirements of regulation 4 or to observe or perform any condition imposed on him in accordance with the requirements of paragraph (3) of regulation 18, he shall for such offence be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding £10, or where the offence consists of continuing any such failure after conviction thereof, £10 together with a further £10 for each day on which it is so continued.

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C2 Reg. 19 modified (6.4.1975) by The National Insurance (Non-participation—Transitional Provisions) Regulations 1974 (S.I. 1974/2057), reg. 1(1), Sch. 3

[F6 Interruptions in non-participating employment due to absence from Great Britain U.K.

20.— (1) The foregoing provisions of these regulations shall, in relation to persons who are or have been outside Great Britain while insured under the Act, have effect subject to the following provisions of this regulation.

(2) Where an insured person’s employment ceases to be a non-participating employment by reason of his being employed outside Great Britain and, apart from this paragraph, the period of his service in that employment would fall, by virtue of paragraph (7)(a) of regulation 2 of these regulations, to be treated, for the purpose of the provisions of Part II of the Act of 1959 relating to the making of a payment in lieu of contributions, as having then come to an end–

(a) the said paragraph (7)(a) shall not apply; and

(b) if immediately before that cessation a period of contribution liability was current in relation to the employment, the provisions of paragraphs (1) to (6) of regulation 2 of these regulations shall, whether or not that period terminated at the end of the contribution week in which the employment last was a non-participating employment, apply as if such a termination had occurred at the end of that week.

(3) A contribution week beginning after an insured person’s employment ceases to be a non-participating employment by reason of his being employed outside Great Britain shall not be included in reckoning a period of contribution liability in that employment for the purpose of these regulations, unless not later than the beginning of that week the employment has again become a nonparticipating employment.

(4) Where an insured person’s employment ceases to be a non-participating employment by reason of his being employed outside Great Britain and thereafter again becomes a non-participating employment, then, notwithstanding the provisions of section 9(2) of the Act of 1959 (which provides that, for the purpose of certain provisions of Part II of that Act, if an employment becomes or ceases to be a non-participating employment in the course of a person’s service in it, his service before and after the time when it does so shall be treated as service in different employments), the insured person’s service before the employment ceased to be, and after it again becomes, a non-participating employment shall not be treated as service in different employments.

(5) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation, the power conferred on the Minister by regulation 18(1) of these regulations to extend the period of thirteen contribution weeks referred to in regulation 2(2) and (3) of these regulations (which period, including any extension thereof, is hereafter in this regulation referred to as a “period of interruption”) may, in the case of an insured person who is absent from Great Britain in the employment or in any other employment under the same employer, be exercised without regard to the conditions of sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of regulation 18(1).

(6) Subject as aforesaid, any extension allowed by virtue of paragraph (5) of this regulation shall cease if the insured person returns to Great Britain, but in that event the Minister may, notwithstanding the provisions of the said subparagraphs (a) and (b), allow such further extension or extensions under regulation 18(1) as he may think fit: Provided that no extension shall be allowed by virtue of this paragraph for more than 130 weeks after the insured person’s return to Great Britain.

(7) For the purposes of this regulation, an insured person who is in Great Britain on holiday with pay from an employment outside Great Britain shall be treated as absent from Great Britain in that employment, and, if he remains in Great Britain after the end of his period of holiday with pay, he shall be treated as then returning to Great Britain.

(8) The Minister, in deciding whether to allow any extension by virtue of paragraph (5) or paragraph (6) of this regulation, shall have regard to whether the insured person retains membership of the recognised superannuation scheme relating to the employment or other qualification for benefit thereunder, and to any other relevant circumstances.

(9) Nothing in the proviso to regulation 3 of these regulations shall require the exclusion from a notice of any contribution weeks in a period of interruption, being contribution weeks in or preceding an extension allowed by virtue of paragraph (5) of this regulation: Provided that this paragraph shall not apply if a new period of contribution liability began in relation to the employment at the end of the period of interruption and the insured person was absent from Great Britain in the employment in the first week of that period of contribution liability.]

Textual Amendments

F6 Reg. 20 added (29.7.1963) by The National Insurance (Non-participation-Assurance of Equivalent Pension Benefits) Amendment Regulations, 1963 (S.I. 1963/1265), regs. 1, 2

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C3 Reg. 20 modified (6.4.1975) by The National Insurance (Non-participation—Transitional Provisions) Regulations 1974 (S.I. 1974/2057), reg. 1(1), Sch. 3

[F7 Calculation of graduated contributions for the purposes of payments in lieu of contributions U.K.

21.   For the purposes of section 58 of the National Insurance Act 1965, as amended (payments in lieu of contributions) the graduated contributions (payable by the insured person and his employer) referred to in paragraph (a) of that section shall, in respect of any contribution week beginning after 5th October 1966, be taken in each case as 7s. 8d.]

Textual Amendments

F7 Reg. 21 inserted (5.10.1966) by The National Insurance (Graduated Contributions and Non-participating Employments—Consequential) Regulations 1966 (S.I. 1966/1048), regs. 1(1), 2