(1)Rules to be made by the Minister of National Insurance with the consent of the Treasury may make provision with respect to the pensions payable to and in respect of persons who have been employed full time—
(a)by an Approved Society ; or
(b)by some other body (including a body of which the Society is a branch or section) administering the affairs of an Approved Society ; or
(c)by a body administering a special scheme under section seventy-three of the [25 & 26 Geo. 5. c. 8.] Unemployment Insurance Act, 1935,
and, whether before or after the passing of this Act but before such date as may be specified in the rules, become civil servants.
(2)Any such rules may include provisions—
(a)authorising or requiring persons who have received payments in respect of their pension rights to pay all or any of the amounts received into the Exchequer ; or
(b)continuing, amending, repealing or revoking any pension scheme under which the persons to whom the rules apply have pension rights and any statutory provisions relating thereto and any trust deed, rules or other instrument made for the purposes thereof, and providing for the transfer in whole or in part of any pension funds or assets held for the purposes of, or any liabilities under, any such scheme, or for the winding up of any such scheme or the extinguishment of any such liabilities ; or
(c)dealing in such manner as may appear appropriate with cases in which, in connection with any provision made by this Act or by the [9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 67.] National Insurance Act, 1946, or in anticipation of the making of any such provision, pension rights have been created otherwise than in the ordinary course.
(3)Where the persons having pension rights under any pension scheme or interested in any pension fund include both such persons as are mentioned in subsection (1) of this section and other persons in respect of whom the following conditions are fulfilled, that is to say—
(a)that they have been employed full time by any such society or body as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section ; and
(b)that they have lost that employment; and
(c)that the loss of employment is directly attributable to the passing of the National Insurance Act, 1946, or the making of any regulations thereunder,
the rules to be made under this section may apply in relation to pensions payable to and in respect of those other persons as if they were persons such as are mentioned in the said subsection (1), and may provide for payments out of moneys provided by Parliament in respect of the pension rights of those other persons, so, however, that nothing in this subsection shall be construed as requiring identical provision to be made in relation to persons who fall, and persons who do not fall, within the said subsection (1).
(4)The provisions of this section shall have effect in relation to any persons notwithstanding that provision could be made in relation to those persons under any other provision of this Act, and nothing in any such other provision shall be construed as limiting the powers exercisable under this section.