The Health and Social Care (Pension Scheme) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008

Meaning of “reckonable pay”: general N.I.

15.—(1) This regulation applies for the purpose of determining the meaning of “ reckonable pay”, in relation to—

(a) a member whose active membership ceases, or

(b) a member becoming entitled to the immediate payment of a pension during the member's active membership period—

(i) on the exercise of the option under regulation 49 (partial retirement: members aged at least 55), or

(ii) under regulation 45(1)(b)(ii).

(2) This regulation is subject to regulations 16 to 19.

(3) A member's “reckonable pay” is determined by the formula—

where—

IRP is the interim reckonable pay determined in paragraph (6) or (7), as appropriate,

RPa is the annual rate of retirement pension that the member would be entitled to if the interim reckonable pay included the adjustment for inflation described in regulation 16, and

RPi is the annual rate of retirement pension the member would be entitled to if the interim reckonable pay did not include the adjustment for inflation described in regulation 16 but instead had been increased by the amount that it would have been increased if it had been the annual rate of an official pension within the meaning of section 5(1) of the Pensions (Increase) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 M1 .

(4) If the period of the member's pensionable service ending with the relevant day equals 365 days, “interim reckonable pay” means the member's pensionable pay for that period.

(5) In this regulation—

(a) “the relevant day” means—

(i) in a case within paragraph (1)(a), the day on which the member's active membership ceases, and

(ii) in a case within paragraph (1)(b), the day before that on which the member becomes entitled to the pension;

(b) “the best consecutive 1095 day period” shall be determined by comparing—

(i) the period of 1095 days immediately preceding the relevant day (Period 1);

(ii) the period of 1095 days which overlaps Period 1 by 730 days (Period 2);

(iii) the period of 1095 days which overlaps Period 2 by 730 days,

and so on.

(6) Except where paragraph (4) or (7) applies, in this regulation “interim reckonable pay” means one-third of the member's pensionable pay for the period of 1095 days—

(a) that begins—

(i) during the member's pensionable service, and

(ii) within the period of 10 years ending with the relevant day, and

(b) for which the member's pensionable pay was the highest (“the best consecutive 1095 day period”).

(7) If the member's pensionable service within the period of 10 years ending with the relevant day—

(a) is less than 365 days, or

(b) exceeds 365 days but is less than 1095 days,

“interim reckonable pay” means the member's pensionable pay for the period of the member's pensionable service, divided by the number of days in that period and multiplied by 365.

(8) If two or more periods of pensionable service are treated as a single continuous period of pensionable service under—

(a) regulation 9(5) (pensionable service: breaks in service), or

(b) regulation 111(2) (exception to general rule in regulation 110),

the references in—

(i) paragraph (4) to a period of pensionable service equalling 365 days,

(ii) paragraph (5) to a period of 1095 days,

(iii) paragraph (7) to the period of pensionable service less than 365 days or more than 365 days but less than 1095 days,

are references to periods together amounting to periods of that length, disregarding any breaks during the single period.

(9) Paragraph (8) does not apply if the other employment is an employment in respect of which the member continues to accrue benefits in accordance with regulation 57 despite being entitled to a pension under regulation 55.

(10) If—

(a) a person's reckonable pay in respect of an employment that the person has left falls to be determined under this regulation by reference to the person's pensionable pay for any period in respect of an employment, and

(b) the person held that employment concurrently during that period with another employment in which the person was an active member,

the member's pensionable pay for that period in the other employment must be taken into account in that determination.

Marginal Citations

M1 1971 c. 35