The National Health Service Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2008

Payment of lump sums on death

2.E.21—(1) A lump sum payable under regulation 2.E.16 (lump sum benefits on death: introduction) must be paid in accordance with this regulation.

(2) The lump sum must be paid to the member’s personal representatives, except so far as it is payable to a different person under paragraph (4) or (6).

(3) A member may give notice to the Scottish Ministers–

(a) specifying–

(i) the member’s personal representatives;

(ii) one or more other individuals; or

(iii) one incorporated or unincorporated body,

to whom the lump sum is to be paid; and

(b) where 2 or more individuals are specified, the percentage of the payment payable to each of them.

(4) If the member–

(a) has given notice under paragraph (3) specifying a person; and

(b) has not revoked that notice,

the lump sum (or, as the case may be, the percentage of it specified in respect of the person) may be paid to the person, unless paragraph (5) or (7) applies.

(5) This paragraph applies if–

(a) the person specified in the notice has died before the payment can be made; or

(b) payment to that person is not, in the opinion of the Scottish Ministers, reasonably practicable.

(6) If the member–

(a) leaves a surviving adult dependant; and

(b) has not given notice under paragraph (3) or has revoked any notice so given,

the lump sum may be paid to that person unless paragraph (7) applies.

(7) This paragraph applies if the person to whom the lump sum (or a specified percentage of the lump sum) would otherwise be payable has been convicted of an offence specified in regulation 2.J.7(2) (forfeiture of rights to benefit) and the Scottish Ministers have directed, as a consequence of that conviction, that the person’s right to a payment in respect of the member’s death is forfeited.

(8) A notice under paragraph (3)–

(a) must be given in writing; and

(b) may be revoked at any time by a further notice in writing.

(9) The Scottish Ministers may pay the lump sum to any person claiming to be the member’s personal representative or otherwise to fall within paragraph (3)(a), without requiring proof that the person is such a person concerned, if the lump sum does not exceed–

(a) £5,000; or

(b) any higher amount specified in an order made under section 6(1) of the Administration of Estates (Small Payments) Act 1965(1) as the amount to be treated as substituted for references to £500 in section 1 of that Act.

(1)

1965 c. 32.