23.—(1) An officer entitled to retirement compensation under regulation 18, 19 or 20 of these regulations shall pay to the compensating authority an amount equal to any sum which was paid to him by way of return of superannuation contributions, whether with or without interest, after ceasing to be employed and the compensating authority may at the request of the officer repay that amount to him at any time before he becomes entitled as aforesaid, but if that amount is not paid to the compensating authority, or is repaid by them to the officer, the compensation shall be reduced by an annual amount the capital value of which is equal to the amount of the said superannuation contributions.
(2) If the claimant had attained the age of forty years at the date on which he lost his employment or suffered a diminution of his emoluments, the compensating authority in calculating the amount of the retirement compensation payable to him shall credit him with additional years of service or an additional period of contribution on the following basis, namely—
(a)two years, whether or not the claimant has completed any years of service after attaining the age of forty years, and
(b)two years for each of the first four completed years of the claimant's reckonable service between the date when he attained the age of forty years and the date of the loss or diminution, and
(c)one year for each such year of service after the fourth,
but the additional years of service or period of contribution so credited shall not exceed the shortest of the following periods, namely—
(i)such number of years as, when added to his pensionable service, would amount to the maximum period of such service which would have been reckonable by him had he continued in his employment until attaining normal retiring age, or
(ii)the number of years of the claimant's reckonable service, or
(iii)fifteen years;
and in calculating the amount of any retirement compensation payable to the claimant any period so added shall be aggregated with any years of service or period of contribution entailing reduction of the relevant pension or retiring allowance in connection with the passing of the National Insurance Act 1946.
(3) When retirement compensation is awarded or when an award is reviewed under regulation 35 of these regulations the additional compensation payable in consequence of any years of service or period of contribution credited to a claimant under the last foregoing paragraph may be reduced or withheld as the compensating authority may think reasonable having regard to the pension scheme (if any) attaching to any further employment obtained by the claimant.
(4) If, under the pension scheme to which the claimant was last subject before suffering loss of employment or diminution of emoluments, the amount of any benefit to which he might have become entitled might have been increased at the discretion of the authority or body administering the pension scheme or of any other body, the compensating authority may increase, to an extent not exceeding that to which his accrued pension, accrued retiring allowance, accrued incapacity pension or accrued incapacity retiring allowance might have been increased or supplemented, the corresponding component of any retirement compensation payable to him; and in this connection the compensating authority shall have regard to the terms of any relevant resolutions of an authority or body with regard to the increase of benefits and to any provisions of an order under the Act of 1945 protecting the interests of the claimant.
(5) If, under the pension scheme to which he was last subject before suffering loss of employment or diminution of emoluments, the claimant would have been entitled to surrender a proportion of any pension which might have become payable to him in favour of his spouse or any dependant, then, if he so desires and informs the compensating authority by notice in writing accordingly within one month after becoming entitled to retirement compensation under these regulations, he may surrender a proportion of so much of the said compensation as is payable by way of an annual sum on the like terms and conditions and in consideration of the like payments by the compensating authority as if the said annual sum were a pension to which he had become entitled under the said pension scheme.
(6) In calculating for the purposes of regulation 18, 19 or 20 of these regulations the amount of the annual sum which is equal to a claimant's accrued pension no account shall be taken of any reduction falling to be made in that pension in connection with the passing of the National Insurance Act 1946 or the National Insurance Act 1959 until the claimant reaches the age at which, under the pension scheme to which he was subject before losing his employment, the pension would have been so reduced.
(7) In paragraph (2) of this regulation the expression “reckonable service”