Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992

62 Graduated retirement benefit.N.I.

(1)So long as sections 35 and 36 of the National Insurance Act (Northern Ireland) 1966M1 (graduated retirement benefit) continue in force by virtue of regulations made under Schedule 3 to the Social Security (Consequential Provisions) Act 1975M2 or under Schedule 3 to the Consequential Provisions Act, regulations may make provision—

(a)for [F1amending section 35(2) of the National Insurance Act (Northern Ireland) 1966 (value of unit of graduated contributions) so that the value is the same for women as it is for men for replacing section 35(4) of that Act] (increase of graduated retirement benefit in cases of deferred retirement) with provisions corresponding to those of [F2paragraphs A1 to 3B and 7C] of Schedule 5 to this Act;

[F3(aa)for amending section 35(7) of that Act (persons to be treated as receiving nominal retirement pension) so that where a person has claimed a Category A or Category B retirement pension but—

(i)because of an election under section 54(1) above, or

(ii)because he has withdrawn his claim for the pension,

he is not entitled to such a pension, he is not to be treated for the purposes of the preceding provisions of that section as receiving such a pension at a nominal weekly rate;]

[F4(ab)for extending section 36 of that Act (increase of woman’s retirement pension by reference to her late husband’s graduated retirement benefit) to civil partners and their late civil partners and for that section (except subsection (5)) so to apply as it applies to women and their late husbands;]

[F5(ac)for extending section 36 of that Act (increase of woman’s retirement pension by reference to her late husband’s graduated retirement benefit) to civil partners and their late civil partners who attain pensionable age before 6th April 2010 and for that section (except subsection (5)) so to apply as it applies to men and their late wives;]

[F6(ad)for extending section 36 of that Act (increase of woman’s retirement pension by reference to her late husband’s graduated retirement benefit) to—

(i)men and their late husbands, and

(ii)women and their late wives,

and for that section (except subsection (5)) so to apply as it applies to women and their late husbands;

(ae)for extending section 36 of that Act (increase of woman’s retirement pension by reference to her late husband’s graduated retirement benefit) to—

(i)men and their late husbands, and

(ii)women and their late wives,

who attained pensionable age before 6th April 2010 and for that section (except subsection (5)) so to apply as it applies to men and their late wives;]

(b)for extending section 36 of that Act (increase of woman’s retirement pension by reference to her late husband’s graduated retirement benefit) to men and their late wives [F7and for that section (except subsection (5) so to apply as it applies to women and their late husbands];

[F8(c)for amending that section in order to make provisions corresponding to those of paragraphs 3C, 4(1) and (1A) and 7A to 7C of Schedule 5 to this Act enabling a widowed person [F9or surviving civil partner] to elect to receive a lump sum, rather than an increase in the weekly rate of retirement pension, in respect of the graduated retirement benefit of his or her deceased spouse [F10or civil partner].]

(2)This section is without prejudice to any power to modify those sections conferred by Schedule 3 to the Consequential Provisions Act.

[F11(3)In relevant gender change cases, women and their late wives are to be treated for the purposes of sections 35 and 36 of the National Insurance Act (Northern Ireland) 1966 in the same way as women and their late husbands.

(4)For that purpose “relevant gender change case”, in relation to a woman (“the pensioner”) and her late wife, means a case where—

(a)the late wife was, at the time of her death, a woman by virtue of a full gender recognition certificate having been issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and

(b)the marriage of the pensioner and her late wife subsisted before the time when the certificate was issued.]