Amendment of regulation 7
5. For regulation 7 (Restrictions on membership) substitute—
“Restrictions on membership
7.—(1) A person may not join the scheme if—
(a)that person is—
(i)under the age of 16; or
(ii)over the age of 75; or
(iii)over the age of 70 on or before 31st March 2008;
(b)that person is a special class officer over the age of 65;
(c)that person is eligible to be an active member of a superannuation scheme established under Article 3 or 11 of the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 in respect of service in that scheme and is such a member;
(d)that person holds an honorary appointment and does not at the same time hold any other employment which entitles him to join the scheme;
(e)that person is not a practitioner and is employed by a GDS or PDS contractor;
(f)that person, on or after 1st April 2008, enters HSC employment for the first time and has not previously been a member of the scheme;
(g)that person, on or after 1st April 2008, returns to HSC employment and was entitled to a refund of contributions under regulation 50 when he last left employment, unless paragraph (4), but not paragraph (5), of regulation 52 applies to that person;
(h)that person is a person who—
(i)leaves superannuable employment on, or after, 1st April 2008; and
(ii)before returning to HSC employment, exercises his right to transfer out all of his benefits in the scheme in accordance with regulation 53 or 54.
(i)that person is a person who has been a member of the Health and Social Care (HSC) Pension Scheme governed by the Health and Social Care Pension Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008.
(2) In paragraph (1)—
(a)“HSC Pension Scheme 2008” includes a corresponding health service scheme;
(b)“superannuable employment” includes employment that qualified the member for a benefit under a health service scheme.
(3) The Department may permit a person who would otherwise not be permitted to join the scheme in accordance with sub-paragraphs (1)(f) to (h) to do so if—
(a)that person’s employment is transferred to an employing authority by virtue of a transfer of undertakings or by virtue of arrangements equivalent to a transfer of undertakings (whether or not the transferring employer is in the public sector provided that person’s employment was originally transferred out of the public sector);
(b)the employment from which the member is transferred—
(i)qualified the member for benefits under an occupational pension scheme, and
(ii)the rules of that scheme (in the opinion of the Department) entitle the member to receive benefits on retirement upon, or prior to, attaining the age of 60 years.
(4) The reference in paragraph (3)(a) to arrangements equivalent to a transfer of undertakings is to arrangements—
(a)which the Department considers to be equivalent to the transfer of an undertaking, and
(b)under which the parties to the arrangements have agreed that the rights of the persons whose employments are being transferred should as far as practicable be treated in the same way as they would have been under a transfer of an undertaking.
(5) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b)(ii) a person is not to be treated as being entitled under the rules of a pension scheme to receive benefits upon, or prior to, attaining the age of 60 years, where such entitlement arises by virtue of any scheme rule making special provision—
(a)as to early retirement on the grounds of ill health, redundancy or otherwise, or
(b)for benefits to be reduced for early payment.
(6) Before permitting a person referred to in paragraph (3) to join the scheme the Department shall take advice from the Scheme Actuary.”.