Teachers' Superannuation (Additional Voluntary Contributions) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Teachers' Superannuation (Additional Voluntary Contributions) Regulations 1996 (“the 1996 Regulations”).

Regulation 2(1) inserts into regulation 2 of the 1996 Regulations definitions for the expression “Investment Linked Pension” (which is a pension that remains investment linked after it becomes payable and which is payable from an authorised annuity policy) and “pro-rata employment”. It also amends the definition of “reckonable service” to bring it in line with the Teachers' Superannuation Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 and updates the definition of “Principal Regulations” so as to refer to the 1998 Regulations in place of the earlier 1977 Regulations.

Regulation 2(1) amends the definition of “insurance company” to take account of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Consequential Amendments and Repeals) Order 2001.

Regulation 2(2) amends regulation 5 of the 1996 Regulations and allows a teacher who elects for his lump sum death benefit to be used to purchase a pension policy to specify that such a pension is to be an Investment Linked Pension.

Regulation 2(3) amends regulation 10 of the 1996 Regulations to allow inward transfers to the AVC scheme to be made at any time by a person in pensionable employment in a free-standing scheme or an approved scheme.

Regulation 2(4) amends regulation 12(5) of the 1996 Regulations so that a teacher is no longer required to make a benefits election when nearing retirement. If he does so, however, he may elect that he is provided with a pension which is Investment Linked. Regulation 2(4) makes a corresponding amendment to regulation 12(8) of the 1996 Regulations so that if a teacher has not made a benefits election under paragraph (5) he may defer purchasing an annuity until he is 75. It also amends regulation 12(9) of those Regulations so that a lump sum payable under that paragraph is limited to 5 times the annual rate of the pension payable if the teacher had not died.

Regulation 2(5) amends the meanings of “average of the participator’s salary” and “adjusted salary” in paragraph 4 of the Schedule to the 1996 Regulations so that where a teacher is in part-time employment remunerated on a pro-rata basis, “the salary” taken into account will be the equivalent full-time salary.

Regulation 2(6) amends paragraph 8 of the Schedule to the 1996 Regulations and inserts a new paragraph 8A, so that the retirement pension of teachers who joined the Teachers' Superannuation Scheme (under the Teachers' Superannuation Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 or the earlier 1977 Regulations which the 1998 Regulations replaced) on or after 1st September 1991 and who are “low earners” (those who earn less than one-quarter of the permitted maximum under section 590C of the Taxes Act in the first year of pensionable employment) will always be the relevant fraction of their final remuneration (that is, G as defined in paragraph 8(2)(a) of the Schedule to the 1996 Regulations).

These regulations have retrospective effect by virtue of regulation 1(2).