The Personal and Occupational Pension Schemes (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 1987

Amendments of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Contracting-out) Regulations 1984

4.—(1) The Occupational Pension Schemes (Contracting-out) Regulations 1984(1) shall be amended in accordance with the provisions of this regulation.

(2) In regulation 1—

(a) in paragraph (2), immediately before “other expressions have the same meaning as in the Act”, there shall be inserted “subject to paragraph (2A)”; and

(b) after paragraph (2), there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(2A) In these regulations, the expression `state scheme premium' does not include a personal pension protected rights premium under section 5 of the Social Security Act 1986.”.

(3) In regulation 8(2)(d), for “6th April 1978” there shall be substituted “6th April 1988 in a case where the scheme whose name is specified under sub-paragraph (b) is a money purchase contracted-out scheme, or 6th April 1978 in any other case”.

(4) In regulation 10(1), for the words from “the categories” to “the relevant scheme” there shall be substituted—

“(i) the categories of descriptions of the earners affected by the certificate, or

(ii) in the case of a money purchase contracted-out scheme, the protected rights under, or in the case of any other scheme, the benefits provided by, the relevant scheme, or

(iii) the contributions (if any) payable by those earners to the relevant scheme”.

(5) In regulation 11(1)—

(a) in sub-paragraph (a), after “guaranteed minimum pensions” there shall be inserted “or protected rights, as the case may be,”; and

(b) in sub-paragraph (b), after “guaranteed minimum pensions” there shall be inserted “, or the protected rights, as the case may be,”.

(6) In regulation 18—

(a) in paragraph (1B), for “and 45” there shall be substituted “and, subject to paragraph (1C) below, 45”; and

(b) after paragraph (1B) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(1C) In a case where—

(a) a transfer payment has been made to a scheme in accordance with regulations 2 and 3 of the Protected Rights (Transfer Payment) Regulations 1987; and

(b) the scheme receiving that payment is to exclude one or more of the guaranteed minimum pensions resulting from the payment from full revaluation in accordance with paragraph 2 of Schedule 3 to those regulations,

for the purposes of section 45 (premium where guaranteed minimum pension excluded from full revaluation) the prescribed person is the trustees of the receiving scheme.”.

(7) In regulation 18(3), after “state scheme premium”, there shall be inserted “, other than a contracted-out protected rights premium,”.

(8) In regulation 18(4)—

(a) after “(accrued rights premiums and pensioner’s rights premiums)” there shall be inserted “, section 44ZA (contracted-out protected rights premiums)”;(2)

(b) in sub-paragraph (a), after “section 44” there shall be inserted “or, in the case of a contracted-out protected rights premium, whether or not a person’s protected rights are subject to approved arrangements as mentioned in section 44ZA”; and

(c) in sub-paragraph (c), after “section 44” there shall be inserted “or 44ZA, as the case may be,”.

(9) In regulation 19(1)(c), there shall be inserted—

(a) after “widow”, “or her widower”; and

(b) after “widow's”, in both places where it occurs, “or widower's”.

(10) In regulation 22(4), after “regulations made thereunder” there shall be inserted “or for members as regards their accrued rights to guaranteed minimum pensions which have arisen under the scheme by reason of a transfer payment made to it in accordance with regulations 2 and 3 of the Protected Rights (Transfer Payment) Regulations 1987”.

(11) In regulation 24(1), after “where the premium”, there shall be inserted “was not a contracted-out protected rights premium and”.

(12) After paragraph (2) of regulation 24 there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(2A) Where a contracted-out protected rights premium has been paid in connection with a person’s protected rights and another such premium subsequently becomes payable in connection with the same protected rights or protected rights including those rights, the Secretary of State may treat all or part of the first premium as paid (wholly or in part) in discharge of a liability for the second premium.”.

(13) In regulation 24(3)—

(a) after sub-paragraph (d) there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph—

“(dd) in the case of a contracted-out protected rights premium, he is satisfied that a transfer of the protected rights will be made in accordance with Schedule 1 to the Social Security Act 1986 as modified by section 32(2B); or”;(3)

(b) after the words “and where a premium”(following sub-paragraph (e)) there shall be inserted “other than a contracted-out protected rights premium”; and

(c) at the end there shall be inserted “, and where a contracted-out protected rights premium is so refunded, the protected rights which were extinguished by payment of the premium and the corresponding reduction in any guaranteed minimum pension to which any person was treated as entitled shall be restored”.

(14) In regulation 24(4), after “regulation 45(d)(iii),” there shall be inserted “or where the earner’s rights were appropriately secured for the purposes of section 52C in circumstances analogous to those specified in that provision,”(4).

(15) After regulation 24(4) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(4A) Where a limited revaluation premium has been paid and a transfer payment under regulation 2B of the Contracting-out (Transfer) Regulations 1985 is made thereafter in respect of the accrued rights of the earner in respect of whom that premium was paid, the Secretary of State shall repay the amount of the premium to the trustees of the scheme, or the administrators of the policy, who made the transfer payment.”.

(16) In regulation 24(8)(a) and (c), there shall be inserted, after “widow”, “or widower”.

(17) In regulation 24(8), after sub-paragraph (c) there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph—

“(d) where it was paid under section 44ZA(4) and the person in respect of whom it was paid has died, without leaving a widow or widower, on or before the later of the days first mentioned in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) respectively of regulation 20(1).”.

(18) For paragraph (1) of regulation 28 there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

“(1)   For a scheme to be contracted-out in relation to an earner’s employment it must include a specific rule to the effect that if the earner has a guaranteed minimum under section 35—

(a) the weekly rate of his pension under the scheme at pensionable age shall not be less than that guaranteed minimum;

(b) the weekly rate of pension payable to any widow of the earner under the scheme shall be not less than half that guaranteed minimum; and

(c) the weekly rate of pension payable to any widower of the earner under the scheme shall be not less than half of that part of the earner’s guaranteed minimum which is attributable to earnings factors for the tax year 1988/89 and subsequent tax years,

that rule to be expressed to override all other provisions of the scheme, except any that are in accordance with the provisions of the Act.”.

(19) In regulation 34, there shall be inserted—

(a) after “his widow” in paragraph (1)(c), “or her widower”;

(b) after “him” in paragraph (2), “or her”; and

(c) after “widow's”, in both places where it occurs in paragraph (2), “or widower's”.

(20) In regulation 35, there shall be inserted—

(a) after “widow's”, in paragraph (1) and in both places where it occurs in paragraph (2), “or widower's”; and

(b) after “widow” in paragraph (2)(c), “or widower”.

(21) In regulation 36—

(a) in each of sub-paragraphs (c), (d) and (e) of paragraph (1), after “guaranteed minimum pensions” there shall be inserted “or his protected rights, as the case may be,”;

(b) in paragraph (3)(a)(iii) there shall be inserted, at the end, “or, as the case may be, effect has not been given to protected rights under the scheme arising out of his service in that employment by the making of a transfer payment in accordance with the provisions of the scheme under paragraph 9(1)(b) of Schedule 1 to the Social Security Act 1986 as modified by section 32(2B).”(5); and

(c) in paragraph (5)(a)—

(i) after “guaranteed minimum pensions” there shall be inserted “or protected rights, as the case may be,”, and

(ii) after “benefits” there shall be inserted “or such rights”.

(22) In regulation 37(2)(d) there shall be inserted, at the end, “or, as the case may be, effect has been given to protected rights under the scheme arising out of his service in the first employment by the making of a transfer payment in accordance with the provisions of the scheme under paragraph 9(1)(b) of Schedule 1 to the Social Security Act 1986 as modified by section 32(2B).”.

(23) In regulation 38(1)(a) and (2)(b), “or widower” shall be inserted after “widow”.

(24) In regulation 43—

(a) in paragraph (3), after “guaranteed minimum pensions” there shall be inserted “(including those to which persons are treated as entitled under section 29(2A))”(6);

(b) for paragraph (4) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

“(4) In any case where a person or body transfers his or its responsibility for, or makes a transfer payment in respect of, a guaranteed minimum pension to another person or body, the first person or body shall, within 5 weeks from the date of the transfer or transfer payment, notify the Secretary of State of its occurrence, giving such particulars as the Secretary of State may reasonably require to enable him to identify the second person or body.”; and

(c) in paragraph (5), for “guaranteed minimum pensions and for related purposes” there shall be substituted “guaranteed minimum pensions (including those to which persons are treated as entitled under section 29(2A)), and in order to know for what, if any, protected rights the scheme is responsible, and from what minimum contributions, minimum payments or transfer payments they derive, and for related purposes.”.

(25) In regulation 44(e)(ii), after “in such cases” there shall be inserted “, except in such a case to which regulation 18(1C) applies,”.

(26) In regulation 49—

(a) in paragraph (1)—

(i) after “paragraph (2)”, there shall be inserted “and paragraph (3)”, and

(ii) after “another contracted-out scheme”, there shall be inserted “or have arisen in such a scheme by reason of a transfer payment giving effect to his protected rights in accordance with regulations 2 and 3 of the Protected Rights (Transfer Payment) Regulations 1987”(7);

and

(b) after paragraph (2), there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(3) For the purposes of paragraph (1), where an earner has a guaranteed minimum pension in consequence of a transfer payment made in accordance with regulations 2 and 3 of the Protected Rights (Transfer Payment) Regulations 1987—

(a) that pension shall be treated as if it had arisen as a result of his service in the employment by reference to which the scheme ceasing to be contracted-out was contracted-out; and

(b) the reference to earnings factors, to the extent that they relate to that pension, shall be construed so as to include only those which do not fall to be revalued in accordance with section 35(7) as modified by regulation 4(6) of those regulations.”.

(1)

S.I. 1984/380; the relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1985/1323, 1928, 1986/317, 1716.

(2)

Section 44ZA was inserted into the Social Security Pensions Act 1975 by the Social Security Act 1986 (c. 50), section 6 and Schedule 2, paragraph 7.

(3)

Subsection (2B) was inserted into section 32 by the Social Security Act 1986 (c. 50), section 6 and Schedule 2, paragraph 5(b).

(4)

Section 52C was inserted into the Social Security Pensions Act 1975 by the Social Security Act 1985 (c. 53), section 2 and Schedule 1, paragraph 2.

(5)

Subsection (2B) was inserted into section 32 by the Social Security Act 1986 (c. 50), section 6 and Schedule 2, paragraph 5(b).

(6)

Subsection (2A) was inserted into section 29 by the Social Security Act 1986 (c. 50), section 6 and Schedule 2, paragraph 3.

(7)

S.I. 1987/1118.