Coronavirus Act 2020

Pension rights

7 (1) If an employment-related benefit scheme does not include an emergency volunteering rule, it is to be treated as including one.

(2) An emergency volunteering rule is a provision that has the effect set out in sub-paragraphs (3) and (4).

(3) If a relevant term does not treat time when a worker is on emergency volunteering leave as it treats time when they are not, the term is modified so as to treat time when they are on emergency volunteering leave as time when they are not.

(4) If a term confers a relevant discretion capable of being exercised so that time when a worker is on emergency volunteering leave is treated differently from time when they are not, the term is modified so as not to allow the discretion to be exercised in that way.

(5) A term is relevant if it is—

(a) a term relating to membership of the scheme,

(b) a term relating to the accrual of rights under the scheme, or

(c) a term providing for the determination of the amount of a benefit payable under the scheme.

(6) A discretion is relevant if its exercise is capable of affecting—

(a) membership of the scheme,

(b) the accrual of rights under the scheme, or

(c) the determination of the amount of a benefit payable under the scheme.

(7) This paragraph does not require the worker’s contributions to the scheme in respect of time when they are on emergency volunteering leave to be determined otherwise than by reference to the amount they are paid by the employer in respect of that time.

(8) “Employment-related benefit scheme”—

(a) in relation to England and Wales and Scotland, has the meaning given by paragraph 7 of Schedule 5 to the Social Security Act 1989;

(b) in relation to Northern Ireland, has the meaning given by paragraph 7 of Schedule 5 to the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (S.I. 1989/1342 (N.I. 13)).