The Transport Act 2000 (Civil Aviation Authority Pension Scheme) Order 2001

Change in manner of payment and variable pension option

38.5—(a) Subject always to Appendix 4 and Appendix 5, at the request of or with the consent of a Member or other beneficiary a benefit payable from the NATS Section to or in respect of him may at the discretion of the Trustees be payable in a different manner or in a different form from that described in these NATS Rules and the amount thereof may be adjusted appropriately provided always that:

(i) the total benefits in respect of him shall not be less than the Trustees after consultation with the Actuary consider to be actuarially equivalent; and

(ii) this Rule shall not be operated in such a way as to cause the pension to which a Member or his Spouse is entitled in accordance with Appendix 5 to be payable for less than such person’s lifetime.

(b) The provisions of paragraph (a) above may at the request of a Member be applied to increase the amount of the Member’s pension in course of payment from the NATS Section prior to State Pensionable Age so that such pension immediately prior to that age shall, as far as may be practicable, be equal to the aggregate immediately after that age of the Member’s pension from the NATS Section and the State pension payable to the Member. For this purpose the State pension payable to the Member shall be taken to be the full rate of basic State pension payable to a single person as at the date of commencement of the Member’s pension from the NATS Section.

The application of this paragraph (b) shall be subject to paragraph (a) above except that:

(i) it shall be applied at the option of the Member and not at the discretion of the Trustees; and

(ii) by request in writing to the Trustees, a Member may exercise such option or cancel the exercise of such option within the period of three months after commencement of payment of his pension from the NATS Section subject to any terms imposed by the Trustees in order to satisfy the requirements (if any) of the Board of Inland Revenue.

Any alteration to a Member’s pension from the NATS Section as a result of the application of this paragraph (b) shall be disregarded in the calculation of the Member’s Relevant Pension.