18.—(1) A claimant who has attained the qualifying age shall be treated as possessing –
(a)the amount of any retirement pension income –
(i)to which section 16(1)(a) to (e) of the Act applies;
(ii)for which no claim has been made, and
(iii)to which he might expect to be entitled if a claim for it were made;
(b)income from an occupational pension scheme which the claimant elected to defer.
(2) Where a person, aged not less than 60, is a person entitled to money purchase benefits under an occupational or personal pension scheme, or is a party to, or a person deriving entitlement to a pension under, a retirement annuity contract, and –
(a)he fails to purchase an annuity with the funds available in that scheme where –
(i)he defers, in whole or in part, the payment of any income which would have been payable to him by his pension fund holder;
(ii)he fails to take any necessary action to secure that the whole of any income which would be payable to him by his pension fund holder upon his applying for it, is so paid, or
(iii)income withdrawal is not available to him under that scheme, or
(b)in the case of a retirement annuity contract, he fails to purchase an annuity with the funds available under that contract,
the amount of any income foregone shall be treated as possessed by him, but only from the date on which it could be expected to be acquired were an application for it to be made.
(3) The amount of any income foregone in a case to which either head (i) or (ii) of paragraph (2)(a) applies shall be the maximum amount of income which may be withdrawn from the fund.
(4) The amount of any income foregone in a case to which either head (iii) of paragraph (2)(a) or paragraph (2)(b) applies shall be the income that the claimant could have received without purchasing an annuity had the funds held under the relevant scheme or retirement annuity contract been held under a personal pension scheme or occupational pension scheme where income withdrawal was available and shall be determined in the manner specified in paragraph (3).
(5) In paragraph (2), “money purchase benefits” has the meaning it has in section 176(1) of the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993(1).
(6) A person shall be treated as possessing income of which he has deprived himself for the purpose of securing entitlement to state pension credit or increasing the amount of that benefit.