The National Health Service (Superannuation) Amendment Regulations 1987
These Regulations further amend the National Health Service (Superannuation) Regulations 1980 (“the 1980 Regulations”). Changes of substance to the 1980 Regulations are as follows:—in regulation 3 the definitions of “mental health officer” and “temporary additional session” are amended, and two new definitions (of “appropriate policy” and “superannuation scheme”) are inserted;regulation 13 is amended to allow for a person to elect that his widow be excluded from entitlement to a death gratuity, and to provide for the provisions for entitlement to a death gratuity to apply to a widower as to a widow (regulation 4);regulations 15 and 16 are amended to introduce an earnings limit (initially £1,177) for children receiving full-time training in respect of whom a child’s allowance is payable or who qualify a widow for increased pension entitlement (regulations 5 to 7); in addition regulation 15 is amended to allow for an allowance to continue to be payable in respect of a child who was not permanently incapacitated at the time of the officer’s death but who subsequently became so while the allowance was still payable (regulation 6(b));regulation 19 is amended to provide for commutation of a death gratuity, a contingent widow’s pension and a child’s allowance, and commutation of a widow’s pension of less than £104 (regulation 8);regulation 20 is amended to provide for the exclusion of officers' guaranteed minimum pensions from revaluation under section 21 of the Social Security Pensions Act 1975 where those pensions are appropriately secured by a policy of insurance or annuity contract, within the meaning of section 52C of that Act, following a transfer payment (in such circumstances they are to be revalued by a fixed percentage);regulation 21 is amended and a new Part II of Schedule 2 substituted, in particular—to introduce a method of calculating credited service and credited practitioner’s remuneration consistent with the methods adopted and the assumptions made in determining a transfer payment under regulation 80, and Part I of Schedule 2, as amended by regulations 21 and 24 of these Regulations (regulations 10 and 24 and the Schedule);regulations 25 and 27 are amended, in particular to clarify the position where a person who has made an election to purchase added years or an unreduced retiring allowance is absent without leave (regulations 11 and 12);regulation 40 is amended to introduce minor easements in relation to re-employment earnings deductible from a pension (regulation 14);regulation 61 is amended, in particular to increase from £1,500 to £5,000 (or higher applicable amount) the maximum amount payable on death without proof of title (regulation 19(a));regulation 80 is amended, in particular to provide that an officer’s right to a transfer payment shall be at least equal to his right to a cash equivalent under paragraph 12 of Schedule 1A to the Social Security Pensions Act 1975 (as inserted by section 2 of, and Schedule 1 to, the Social Security Act 1985), and so that in exercising his choice as to how his transfer payment is to be used an officer has available at least as broad a choice as is available to him under that Schedule to that Act (regulations 21 and 24 and the Schedule);regulation 82 is amended, in particular to provide that in calculating the benefits payable on death in approved employment the first of the three methods of calculating a death gratuity is to be disregarded (regulation 22);paragraph 1(d) of Schedule 1 is amended by increasing the minimum part of a pension which may be surrendered for allocation to a spouse or dependant to that sufficient to secure an annual pension of £104 instead of £78 (regulation 23);paragraph 4 of Schedule 7 is amended so that any period of service which is normally reckonable at half length is to be reckonable at its full length for the purpose of determining the maximum number of additional years which may be purchased (regulation 25).