Exception to section 51(1) of the Act5

1

The trustees or managers are not required to carry out the check in section 51(1) of the Act (independent advice in respect of conversions and transfers) if the transfer value of the member’s or survivor’s subsisting rights in respect of safeguarded benefits5 under the pension scheme is £30,000 or less on the valuation date6.

2

In this regulation “transfer value” means—

a

where the rights referred to in paragraph (1) are transferrable rights as defined in section 89(11)7 of the 1993 Act (scope of Chapter 1), the amount of the cash equivalent8 of those rights calculated in accordance with section 939 of that Act (calculation of cash equivalents) and regulations made under it;

b

where the rights referred to in paragraph (1) are pension credit rights, the amount of the cash equivalent of those rights calculated in accordance with regulations made under section 97I10 of the 1993 Act (calculation of cash equivalents);

c

in any other case, the amount which would be the cash equivalent of the rights referred to in paragraph (1), calculated in accordance with section 93 of the 1993 Act and regulations made under it, as if—

i

Chapter 1 of Part 4ZA11 of the 1993 Act (transfer rights: general) applied to the member or survivor by virtue of those rights;

ii

references to a member in that Chapter and regulations made under it included a survivor of a member, and

iii

in the case of an active member, the member had ceased to accrue rights to benefits on the valuation date,

but, in each case, disregarding regulations 7D and 7E12 of the Transfer Values Regulations (reductions to initial cash equivalents and alternative manner of calculating and verifying cash equivalents).