The Land Drainage (Compensation) Regulations 1977

Compensation payable to widow or dependants of a claimant

23.—(1) Where a person to whom this part of these regulations applies dies, payments in accordance with this regulation and regulations 24 and 25 shall be made to or for the benefit of his widow, child or other dependant or to his personal representatives or, as the case may be, to trustees empowered by him to stand possessed of any benefit under his last relevant pension scheme.

(2) Where the widow, child or other dependant has become, or but for the person's loss of employment would have become, entitled to benefits under his last relevant pension scheme, the widow, child or other dependant, as the case may be, shall (subject to the provisions of this regulation) be entitled to compensation calculated from time to time in accordance with the methods prescribed by the last relevant pension scheme modified as follows:—

(a) where the person dies before becoming entitled to receive retirement compensation and the last relevant pension scheme provides that when he dies in service his widow, child or other dependant shall be entitled for any period to a benefit equal to his pensionable remuneration, the annual rate of compensation for that period shall be equal to the annual amount of his long-term compensation calculated in accordance with paragraphs (1) to (3) of regulation 13;

(b) where the person dies before becoming entitled to receive retirement compensation and the last relevant pension scheme provides that when he dies in service his widow, child or other dependant shall be entitled for any period to a benefit calculated by reference to the pension or incapacity pension which would have been payable to him if he had retired immediately before his death, the compensation for that period shall be calculated by reference to the retirement compensation to which he would have been entitled under regulation 19 if that regulation had been applied to him immediately before his death;

(c) where a person dies after becoming entitled to receive retirement compensation and the last relevant pension scheme provides that when he dies after having retired his widow, child or other dependant shall be entitled for any period to a benefit equal to his pension, the annual rate of compensation for that period shall be equal to the annual amount of retirement compensation;

(d) where a person dies after he has become entitled to receive retirement compensation and the last relevant pension scheme provides that when he dies after having retired his widow, child or other dependant shall be entitled for any period to a benefit calculated by reference to his pension, the annual rate of compensation for that period shall be calculated by reference to the annual amount of retirement compensation that would have been payable to him but for any reduction or suspension under regulation 30(1);

(e) for the purposes of calculating compensation in accordance with the foregoing provisions, each year added to a person's reckonable service under regulation 17 (or which would have been added if retirement under regulation 19 were assumed) shall be deemed to have been service rendered immediately before the loss of employment.

(3) Calculation of the amounts described in paragraph (2) shall be subject to the following adjustments:—

(a) where any retirement compensation has been surrendered under regulation 17(6) or compounded under regulation 33, any sum payable under paragraph (2)(b) and (d) shall be calculated as if such surrender or compounding had not taken place;

(b) it shall be assumed the retirement compensation payable, or which would have been payable, had been such sum as would have been payable if the accrued pension or accrued incapacity pension had not been reduced by reason of the provisions of any enactment relating to National Insurance or Social Security; and

(c) if immediately before his death the person's long-term compensation was reduced under regulation 13(4) or 32(7) or his retirement compensation was reduced or suspended under regulation 30(1) by reason of employment in which he was subject to a pension scheme and the widow, child or other dependant is entitled under that scheme for any period to a benefit equal to his pensionable remuneration, regard shall be had to any such reduction or suspension for the purposes of paragraph 2(a) and (c).

(4) Where the widow, child or other dependant has become, or but for the person's loss of employment would have become, entitled to a benefit other than a benefit mentioned in paragraph (2)(a) to (d), the widow, child or other dependant, as the case may be, shall be entitled (subject to the provisions of paragraph (5)), to an annual sum equal to the annual amount of the pension which would have been payable if he had died immediately before the date on which he suffered the loss of employment, having then complied with any requirements of the last relevant pension scheme as to a minimum period of qualifying service or contribution and completed any additional contributory payments or payments in respect of added years which he was then in the course of making.

(5) The calculation referred to in paragraph (4) shall be made on the basis of the method prescribed by the last relevant pension scheme of the person in question for the calculation of benefits for a widow, child or other dependant, and, in so far as the age at which he died is relevant for the purposes of the said calculation, the calculation shall be made by reference to his age at the date of death.

(6) Any sums payable to or for the benefit of a widow, child or other dependant under this regulation shall cease to be payable when a corresponding pension under the last relevant pension scheme would have ceased to be payable; and where that scheme provides for payment of the pension to any person on behalf of a child or other dependant, any sum payable under this regulation to a child or other dependant shall be paid to that person on behalf of the child or dependant in the like manner and for the like period as is provided in the pension scheme.

(7) Except where the compensation has been reduced under regulation 21, compensation payable under this regulation and regulation 24 shall in the aggregate be reduced by an amount the capital value whereof is equal to the amount of any superannuation contributions as defined in regulation 21(3) returned to the person in respect of whom the compensation is payable and not paid to the compensating authority, the compensation under each of those regulations being reduced in proportion to the capital value of each amount.

(8) If the person in question suffered a diminution of emoluments, then—

(a) where his last relevant pension scheme provides benefits of a kind described in paragraph (2), the provisions of that paragraph shall apply with the substitution of references to diminution of emoluments for references to loss of employment, and the sums payable to his widow, child or other dependant shall be calculated as if he had suffered loss of employment and as if the loss of emoluments occasioned thereby had been equivalent to the amount of the diminution; but no sum shall be payable under this sub-paragraph if the person has continued to pay superannuation contributions as if his emoluments had not been diminished or where under the person's last relevant pension scheme benefits are payable to his widow, child or other dependant which are calculated by reference to the person's remuneration for a period prior to the date on which his emoluments were diminished; and

(b) where his last relevant pension scheme provides benefits of a kind described in paragraph (4), the provisions of that paragraph and of regulation 30(3)(a) shall apply with the substitution of references to diminution of emoluments for the references to loss of employment and of a reference to employment in which he has suffered such a diminution for the reference to employment which he has lost.