COUNTING MEMBERSHIP FOR THE SCHEME

Periods of membership: "total membership"
8.  - (1) These are the periods which count as periods of membership-

(a) any period for which a member has paid (or is treated as having paid) contributions under regulation 11, 16 or 17;

(b) any period during which a member is away from work because of illness or injury;

(c) any period which a member is entitled to count as membership under-


(i) Chapter II or III of Part III; or

(ii) regulation 122(1) (periods credited on payment of transfer values);



(d) in the case of a member who belonged to the Scheme immediately before the commencement date, any period he is entitled to count under the Transitional Regulations.

(1A) A person who remains in service after his 65th birthday as referred to in regulation 24A(1) may not count as a period of membership any period of service between age 65 and the date of his retirement from service but he shall be treated as an active member for the purposes of regulations 39 to 45 (surviving spouse's or civil partner's (SI2005/554) and children's pensions). (SI2000/199)  (SI2006/468)  

(2) For most purposes a member's "total membership" is the total of the periods he is entitled to count under paragraph (1), disregarding any period which would otherwise count twice (but see regulations 9, 10 and 31 regulations 9, 10, 10A, 28, 31A and Schedule 4 (SI2005/293) (SI2006/468) and the Transitional Regulations).

    (3) A person may not count any period of membership if his contributions for that period have been returned to him and, if all his contributions to the appropriate fund are returned to him, he may not count any period of membership credited to him on the receipt of a transfer value.

    (4) A person may not count any period of membership if his rights in respect of it have been transferred to a non-local government scheme, a personal pension scheme, a self-employed pension arrangement, a retirement annuity contract or an appropriate policy by payment of a transfer value.

    (5) Where a person pays contributions under regulation 17(3) (trade disputes) for any period, that period counts as a period within paragraph (1)(a) even if his contract of employment did not subsist throughout that period.

    (6) Paragraph (1)(a) includes any period for which a member is treated as having paid contributions under regulation 86(4) (concurrent employments).

(7) Periods of membership before and after any unpaid period of maternity or adoption absence or period of parental leave in respect of which the member does not pay any contributions shall be treated as continuous. (SI2005/293)

Excluded membership
     9.  - (1) Superannuable membership does not count towards the membership period required before a person is entitled to any benefit.

(2) "Superannuable membership" is-

(a) any period of added years;
(b) any additional period of membership which counts as such by virtue of Chapter II of Part III;

(3) The Table in Schedule 3 sets out other sorts of membership which do not count for some purposes.

(4) The first column of that Table describes the membership and the second column specifies the purposes for which such membership does not count.

(5) That Table has effect subject to the notes at the end.

Length of period of membership: calculation of benefit
10.  - (1) In calculating the amount of any benefit, fractions of years of membership count.

(2) The numerator of such fractions is the number of complete days of membership and 365 is the denominator.

(3) Membership in part-time service is counted as the appropriate fraction of the duration of membership.

(4) The numerator of that fraction is the number of contractual hours during the part-time service and its denominator is the number of contractual hours of that employment if it were on a whole-time basis.

(5) Paragraph (3) does not apply in determining a member's total membership for regulation 27(1) (ill-health enhancement) (and see regulation 27(5) and (6) as to the determination of the enhanced membership period in such cases).

High earners
10A. —(1) This regulation applies to a member who was subject to regulation 15(1) immediately before 1st October 2006 6th October 2006 (SI2006/514) and whose pay (calculated in accordance with regulation 12) in the year ending 5th April 2006 exceeds £105,600.

(2) In such a case, his period of membership for calculating his benefits payable under these Regulations is obtained by aggregating
his period of membership after that date with the period obtained by applying the formula set out in paragraph (3).

(3) That formula is–

(M × 105,600/P) + T,

where–

M is his period of membership after 5th April 1989 and before 1st October 2006 6th October 2006 (SI2006/514) (excluding any membership credited by virtue of a
transfer under regulation 121);
P is his pay as mentioned in paragraph (1); and
T is the aggregate of his period of membership before 6th April 1989 and any membership credited by virtue of a transfer under regulation 121.

(SI 2006/468)