Scottish Parliamentary Pensions Act 2009

Buying added years by lump sum

88 (1) The Fund trustees may accept a participating member’s application to buy added years by lump sum if the following conditions are met.

Condition 1	The application states the number of added years which the applicant wishes to buy.
Condition 2	The applicant has satisfied the Fund trustees that he or she is in good health.
Condition 3	The applicant has given the Fund trustees any information that they reasonably require in relation to the application.
Condition 4	Rule 89 does not require the Fund trustees to reject the application.

(2) The lump sum is payable by the participating member during the period of 6 months following acceptance (and the right to buy added years in pursuance of an accepted application is extinguished at the end of that period).

(3) The amount of the lump sum is to be determined by the Fund trustees by reference to the MSP’s or, as the case may be, the office-holder’s salary on the day he or she applied to buy added years.

(4) Such a determination must be—

(a) certified by the scheme actuary, or

(b) made in accordance with guidance or tables prepared by the scheme actuary.

(5) On payment of the lump sum, the participating member’s reckonable service as an MSP or, as the case may, as an office-holder is increased by the number of added years bought.

(6) The increased period of reckonable service is, for the purposes of rule 38(1) or, as the case may be, 39(3), to be treated as a period during which higher rate scheme member contributions were made.

(7) Where added years are bought by an office-holder member who is not an MSP, the increase in reckonable service is, for the purposes of rule 39(3), to be attributed to the period in office being served when the added years are bought.