624.The minimum benefit rules underpin a scheme’s own benefit formula. To check whether the level of pension payable to a scheme member meets the statutory minimum, the scheme administrator will undertake a notional calculation as follows:
Step 1: Calculate the member’s GMP entitlement. For the purpose of this calculation, the amount of GMP would include increases in deferment required under section 15 of the PSA, statutory revaluation under section 16 of the PSA and increases in payment under section 109 of the PSA.
Step 2: Calculate the amount of GMP at the termination of salary-related pensionable service, exclude any increases required under sections 15 or 109 of the PSA, or early leaver revaluation required under 16(3), but include any revaluation under section 16(1) of the PSA (section 148 revaluation). The revaluation on the GMP, for the purpose of this step, is to be calculated up to the tax year before the one in which the member left salary-related pensionable service in the scheme, or the tax year before the one in which s/he reached State Pension Age, whichever is the earlier. State Pension Age in this context means 60 for a woman and 65 for a man.
Step 3: Determine whether there are any benefits in excess of the GMP which derive from pre-April 1997 rights. This can be done by deducting the amount in step 2 from the benefits that are attributable to all the pre-April 1997 rights.
Step 4: Calculate the amount of any such benefits in excess of the GMP. The level of earnings used must not be lower than that those used to calculate the post-April 1997 benefits under step 6.
Step 5: Revalue the pre-April 1997 excess over the GMP, in accordance with the rules in chapter II of Part IV of the PSA (Revaluation of Accrued Benefits (excluding Guaranteed Minimum Pensions)).
Step 6: Calculate any benefits accruing in the scheme after 6 April 1997.
Step 7: Revalue post-6 April 1997 benefits, in accordance with the rules on revaluation set out in chapter II of Part IV of the PSA (Revaluation of Accrued Benefits (excluding GMPs)) and index them as required by section 51 (Indexation) of the Pensions Act 1995.
Step 8: Add together the GMP in step 1 plus the revalued excess over the GMP calculated under step 5 and the post-April 1997 rights as calculated under step 7. This is the minimum pension payable.
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