The Local Government (Discretionary Payments) Regulations 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These regulations consolidate, with amendments, the provisions of the Local Government (Compensation for Premature Retirement) Regulations 1982, Part II of the Local Government (Compensation for Redundancy and Premature Retirement) Regulations 1984 and Part II of the Local Government (Compensation for Redundancy) Regulations 1994, all of which have been amended. They also revoke the extant Parts K and L of the Local Government Superannuation Regulations 1986. Parts V and VI of these regulations replace them as part of local authority discretionary awards. These Regulations contain all the provisions relating to discretionary payments that may be made to persons engaged in local government employment other than teachers and those engaged in the police and fire services (excluding those under Part III of the Local Government (Compensation for Redundancy) Regulations 1994).

The main changes are as follows—

• provision for holders of a joint appointment whose appointment has been terminated because the other ceased to hold his appointment may now be considered for a discretionary award under Part III (Regulation 6(1)(a)(iii));

• all the service of a part-timer can be taken into account when considering an award on compensatory added years (Regulation 7(3));

• spouses of post retirement marriages of employees awarded compensatory added years may receive part of the compensation pension (Regulation 20);

• the “indexed training rate” has been uprated (Regulation 25(6));

• interest is to be paid on compensation paid late in certain circumstances (Regulation 30);

• the appropriate authority has two months in which to recover from the employing authority the amount of any payment made on their behalf (Regulation 31(2));

• injury allowances and gratuities, which were in the Local Government Superannuation Regulations 1986, have been included in these regulations as they are payable by the local authorities and not from the pension fund (Parts V and VI).