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PART IIPRIMARY PROVISIONS

CHAPTER IICOUNTING MEMBERSHIP FOR THE SCHEME

Periods of membership: “total membership”

8.—(1) The following periods count as periods of membership –

(a)any period for which a member has paid (or is treated as having paid) contributions under regulation 11, 16 or 17 or 88(5);

(b)any period during which a member is away from work because of illness or injury;

(c)any period which a member is entitled to count as membership under –

(i)Chapter II or III of Part III, or

(ii)regulation 125(1) (periods credited on payment of transfer values);

(d)in the case of a member who belonged to the Scheme before the commencement date, any period he is entitled to count under the Transitional Regulations.

(2) For most purposes a member’s “total membership” is the total of the periods he is entitled to count under paragraph (1), disregarding any period which would otherwise count twice (but see regulations 9, 10 and 34, Schedule 4 and the Transitional Regulations).

(3) A person may not count any period of membership if his contributions for that period have been returned to him and, if all his contributions to the fund are returned to him, he may not count any period of membership credited to him on the receipt of a transfer value.

(4) A person may not count any period of membership if his rights in respect of it have been transferred to a non-local government scheme, a personal pension scheme, a self-employed pension arrangement, a retirement annuity contract or an appropriate policy by payment of a transfer value.

(5) Where a person pays contributions under regulation 17(3) (trade disputes) for any period, that period counts as a period within paragraph (1)(a) even if his contract of employment did not subsist throughout that period.

(6)  Periods of membership before and after any unpaid period of maternity absence or period of parental leave in respect of which the member does not pay any contributions shall be treated as continuous.

Excluded membership

9.—(1) Superannuable membership does not count towards the membership period required before a person is entitled to any benefit.

(2) Superannuable membership is –

(a)any period of added years; and

(b)any additional period of membership which counts as such by virtue of Chapter II of Part III.

(3) The Table in Schedule 3 sets out other sorts of membership which do not count for some purposes.

(4) The first column of that Table describes the membership and the second column specifies the purposes for which such membership does not count.

(5) That Table has effect subject to the notes at the end.

Length of period of membership: calculation of benefit

10.—(1) In calculating the amount of any benefit, fractions of years of membership count.

(2) The numerator of such fractions is the number of complete days of membership and 365 is the denominator.

(3) Membership in part-time service is counted as the appropriate fraction of the duration of membership.

(4) The numerator of that fraction is the number of contractual hours during the part-time service and its denominator is the number of contractual hours of that employment if it were on a whole-time basis.

(5) Paragraph (3) does not apply in determining a member’s total membership for regulation 30(1) (entitlement to ill-health enhancement) (and see regulation 30(6) to (10) as to the determination of the enhanced membership period in such cases).