Explanatory Note
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations provide for compensation for premature retirement of certain teachers and also provide for compensation on redundancy to certain teachers in addition to the normal statutory compensation. They consolidate and replace the provisions of the Teachers' (Compensation for Premature Retirement) (Scotland) Regulations 1980 (“the 1980 Regulations”), the Teachers' (Compensation for Redundancy and Premature Retirement) (Scotland) Regulations 1984 and relevant amending instruments. Some amendments of substance are made compared to the previous provisions.
Part I provides for citation, commencement and interpretation.
Part II provides for payment of compensation for premature retirement of teachers.
Regulation 3 determines the teachers eligible for such compensation. They must be employed by local authorities or certain other employers specified in Schedule 1. They must be aged between 50 and 65 and have been prematurely retired by their employers on grounds of redundancy or in the interests of the efficiency of their employers' functions. They must have been retired from employment which–
(a)is pensionable under the Teachers' Superannuation (Scotland) Regulations 1992 (“the Superannuation Regulations”); or
(b)would be pensionable under the Superannuation Regulations if the teacher had not opted out of those Regulations; or
(c)would be pensionable under the Superannuation Regulations if the teacher was a part-time teacher and had opted into those Regulations.
Teachers retiring from the kinds of employment described at (b) and (c) become eligible for compensation for the first time under these Regulations. The 1980 Regulations applied only to pensionable employment.
The date of premature retirement (“the material date”) may be before or after the date when the Regulations come into force, but cannot be earlier than certain specified dates.
Compensation for premature retirement is at the discretion of the employing authority and takes the form of additional superannuation benefits payable to the teacher or his dependants, similar to those under the Superannuation Regulations, but payable by the employing authority, not the Secretary of State. Regulation 4 enables the employing authority within 6 months from the material date to credit the teacher with an additional period of service on the basis of which the benefits will be calculated. For the two categories of teachers who become eligible for the first time under the Regulations, where the material date is before the legislation comes into force the employing authority may credit them with additional service within 6 months of the Regulations coming into force.
Regulations 5 to 15 provide for the benefits payable where additional service has been credited. A change compared to the 1980 Regulations is that short-term compensation due to a spouse or nominated beneficiary with a child, or due to a child, is payable for 6 months instead of 3 months.
Part III provides for compensation payments to teachers employed by employing autho- rities specified in Schedule 1 when they are made redundant. They must have been employed in the same kinds of employment as listed earlier in this note in relation to regulation 3. Once again, the kinds of employment (b) and (c) described there become eligible for the first time under these Regulations. The Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 provides for compensation payments to be made to employees in cases of redundancy but limits the level of the employees' earnings to be taken into account in the calculation of such payments. Part III gives employing authorities the power to make additional compensation payments up to a maximum of the difference between the amount payable under the 1978 Act and the amount which would have been payable had there been no earnings limits specified in that Act.
Part IV makes supplemental provision.
Regulations 1(2) and 21 provide that, where a teacher is credited with additional service in respect of premature retirement at a material date before these Regulations come into force, the provisions of the Regulations for payment of benefits in respect of that service will have effect from the material date. Retrospection is authorised by section 24(3) of the Superannuation Act 1972. No beneficiary is placed in a worse position by such retrospection.