1.—(1) The Contributions and Benefits Act shall be amended in accordance with sub-paragraphs (2) to (4).
(2) In section 30DD() (incapacity benefit: reduction for pension payments)—
(a)in the heading after “pension payments” there shall be inserted “and PPF periodic payments”;
(b)for subsection (1) there shall be substituted the following subsection—
“(1) Where—
(a)a person is entitled to incapacity benefit in respect of any period of a week or part of a week;
(b)there is—
(i)a pension payment;
(ii)a PPF periodic payment; or
(iii)any combination of the payments specified in sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) above,
payable to him in respect of that period (or a period which forms part of that period or includes that period or part of it); and
(c)the amount of the payment or payments (or, as the case may be, the amount which in accordance with regulations is to be taken as payable to him by way of pension payments or PPF periodic payments in respect of that period), when taken together exceeds the threshold,
the amount of that benefit shall be reduced by an amount equal to 50 per cent. of that excess.”;
(c)in subsection (4)(b) and (c) after “pension payments” there shall be inserted “or PPF periodic payments”.
(3) In section 89() (earnings to include occupational and personal pensions for purposes of provisions relating to increases of benefits in respect of adult dependants)—
(a)in the heading after “personal pensions” there shall be inserted “etc.”;
(b)after subsection (1) there shall be inserted the following subsection—
“(1A) Except as may be prescribed, in sections 82 to 86A() above, and in regulations under section 86A above, any reference to earnings includes a reference to payments by way of PPF periodic payments.”;
(c)in subsection (2)—
(i)for “subsection (1) above” there shall be substituted “subsections (1) and (1A) above”;
(ii)after “occupational or personal pension” there shall be inserted “or PPF periodic payments”;
(d)after subsection (2) there shall be added the following subsection—
“(3) In this section “PPF periodic payments” means—
(a)any periodic compensation payments made in relation to a person, payable under the pension compensation provisions as specified in Article 146(2) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 or section 162(2) of the Pensions Act 2004 (the pension compensation provisions); or
(b)any periodic payments made in relation to a person, payable under Article 150 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 or section 166 of the Pensions Act 2004 (duty to pay scheme benefits unpaid at assessment date etc.),
other than payments made to a surviving dependant of a person entitled to such compensation.”.
(4) In section 121(1) (interpretation of Parts I to VI and supplementary provisions) after the definition of “pneumoconiosis” there shall be inserted the following definition—
““PPF periodic payments” means—
(a)
any periodic compensation payments made in relation to a person, payable under the pension compensation provisions as specified in Article 146(2) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 or section 162(2) of the Pensions Act 2004 (the pension compensation provisions); or
(b)
any periodic payments made in relation to a person, payable under Article 150 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 or section 166 of the Pensions Act 2004 (duty to pay scheme benefits unpaid at assessment date etc.);”.