The Health and Social Care Pension Schemes (Partial Retirement etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024

Amendment of Schedule 2 N.I.

21.  In Schedule 2 (medical and dental practitioners), after paragraph 12, insert—

“Partial retirement pension

12A.— (1) In the case of members who are or have been practitioners, regulations 16A (partial retirement pension) and 16B (increase in superannuable pay following exercise of option under regulation 16A) are modified as follows.

(2) Regulation 16A is modified so that—

(a) the reference to holding superannuable employment in paragraph (1)(b) is treated as a reference to engaging in superannuable employment;

(b) the condition in paragraph (1)(c), for the reduction of the member’s superannuable pay to 90% or less of the member’s superannuable pay during the period of 12 months ending with the option day, is treated as a condition for the reduction of the member’s engagement in such employment to 90% or less of its pre-change level;

(c) paragraph (2) is omitted;

(d) the requirement in paragraph (3), for a statement in writing by the member’s employing authority that the conditions in paragraph (1)(b) and (c) are met, is treated as a requirement for appropriate supporting evidence and a statement in writing approved by the Department that the conditions in paragraph (1)(b) and (c) are met;

(e) the requirement in paragraph (7)(a), for the pension to which the member becomes entitled to not be less than the amount of the pension payable by reference to 20% of the member’s superannuable service at the end of the option day (disregarding any additional benefits), is treated as a requirement for the pension to which the member becomes entitled to not be less than 20% of the pension that would have been payable if the member had ceased to be employed in all of his employments at the end of the option day (disregarding any additional benefits);

(f) for the purposes of regulation 16A—

(i) “pre-change level” means the level of the member’s engagement in the employment referred to in regulation 16A(1)(a)(iii) during the period of 12 months ending with the option day; and

(ii) “pension” means the pension that a member would have been entitled to on the option day if the member had ceased to be employed in all of his employments and, in the case of practitioner services, the superannuable earnings taken into account when working out the pension will be drawn from the latest certificate referred to in paragraph 23 of this Schedule (accounts and actuarial reports), or the latest scheme year’s final superannuable earnings referred to in paragraph 10 of this Schedule (contributions to this Section of the scheme), and agreed with the Department.

(3) Regulation 16B is modified so that the condition in paragraph (1)(b), for the member’s superannuable pay to increase to more than 90% of the member’s superannuable pay during the period of 12 months ending with the option day, is treated as a condition for the level of the member’s engagement in the employment or employments referred to in regulation 16A(1)(a)(iii) to increase to more than 90% of the member’s pre-change level.

(4) For the purposes of regulation 16B—

(a) “pre-change level” has the meaning given in paragraph (2)(f)(i);

(b) a member’s “employment” means practitioner service together with any concurrent HSC employment.”.

Commencement Information

I1 Reg. 21 in operation at 1.4.2024, see reg. 1