The Public Service (Civil Servants and Others) Pensions Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014

CHAPTER 1 Eligibility for active membership

Scheme employment

13.—(1)  In these Regulations, “scheme employment” means—

(a) permanent or fixed term employment as a civil servant;

(b) permanent or fixed term employment held by a person mentioned in regulation 3(2)(a) to (e) and to whom this scheme relates by virtue of a determination under section 25(5) of the Act, where the scheme relates to P by virtue of that employment;

(c) permanent or fixed term employment held by a Fair Deal eligible person, where the scheme relates to that person by virtue of that employment.

(2) Any person engaged under a contract for services or engaged locally overseas is not in a scheme employment.

Eligible persons

14.—(1) For the purpose of this Part an eligible person is a person who is eligible to be an active member of this scheme.

(2) A person who is in service in a scheme employment (P) is an eligible person in relation to that service unless paragraph (3) or (4) applies.

(3) This paragraph applies if the terms of the employment exclude P from being an active member of this scheme.

(4) This paragraph applies if, in relation to service in that employment—

(a) P is a protected member of the PCSPS(NI).

(b) P has a partnership pension account; or

(c) P is a member of any other pension scheme and P’s employer pays contributions to that scheme in respect of P.

Service in 2 or more scheme employments

15.  If a person is in service in 2 or more scheme employments, regulation 14 applies separately in relation to each employment.

Fair Deal eligible persons

16.—(1) In these Regulations, “Fair Deal eligible person” means—

(a) a person mentioned in regulation 3(2)(g)—

(i) in respect of whom the Department has made a further determination under section 25(5) of the Act in accordance with regulation 3(1)(b); and

(ii) who meets the conditions of eligibility set out in paragraph (2) (“the conditions of eligibility”); or

(b) a person mentioned in regulation 3(2)(f) or (h)—

(i) in respect of whom the Department has made a determination under section 25(5) of the Act in accordance with regulation 3(1)(b); and

(ii) who meets the conditions of eligibility.

(2) A person (P) meets the conditions of eligibility if—

(a) P’s employer is a party to an Admission Agreement in respect of the transferred services and the Admission Agreement has not terminated;

(b) on the Fair Deal transfer date, P is employed to carry out the transferred services;

(c) since the Fair Deal transfer date, P has been continuously employed to carry out the transferred services;

(d) P is employed to carry out the transferred services for more than 50% of P’s time working under P’s contract to carry out the transferred services;

(e) P is not, in respect of the transferred services, an active member of an occupational pension scheme or a personal pension scheme provided by P’s employer; and

(f) P has not signed an agreement with P’s employer to waive voluntarily, P’s eligibility to be an active member of this scheme as a Fair Deal eligible person.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph 2(c), P has not been continuously employed where P has had gap in service of any period.

(4) In determining whether P meets the condition in paragraph (2)(d)—

(a) functions or services carried out by P under another contract are to be disregarded;

(b) if the scheme manager has agreed that P may carry out functions or services in another description of employment specified in a published list, those other functions or services must be treated as if they were the transferred services; and

(c) time spent carrying out activities associated with the transferred services (such as training relevant to the transferred services) may be treated as time spent carrying out the transferred services.

(5) A person who ceases to meet the conditions of eligibility ceases to be a Fair Deal eligible person on the date that the person ceases to meet those conditions.

(6) In these regulations—

“Admission Agreement” means a contractual agreement between the Department and P’s employer (and if applicable a 3rd party) relating to participation in this scheme;

“Fair Deal transfer date” means the date specified in the published list as the date on which a person, in order to be eligible to be an active member of this scheme in respect of the transferred services, must have been employed to carry out those services;

“published list” means a list of persons to whom the scheme relates published for the purposes of section 25(9) of the Act; and

“the transferred services”, in relation to a person, means the functions or services in the description of employment specified in a published list that relates to that person.