Explanatory Notes

Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000

2000 CHAPTER 19

28th July 2000

Part II: Pensions.

Commentary on Sections

Chapter I:  State Pensions
State second pension
Section 31: Calculation
New Schedule 4A: Additional pension
Part IV: Other cases

393.Paragraph 9 provides for regulations to be made for calculating the amount of any State Second Pension in a year for those cases not covered by Parts II or III. In the main these will be cases where the person’s circumstances change during the course of the year. For instance, a person may move between contracted-in and contracted-out employment during the year. Or they may move between different categories of contracted-out employment, such as from employment with a personal pension scheme to one with an occupational pension scheme.

394.In such cases it will be necessary to apportion the amounts calculated according to amounts of employment in each circumstance. The guiding principle for these regulations will be to provide a top-up from the state scheme if the person contracted-out would have received more from State Second Pension than the amount they are treated as receiving in respect of their National Insurance rebate.

395.Paragraph 9 also provides for regulations to be made in “such other cases as the Secretary of State thinks fit”. This provision will be used to prescribe how the provisions regarding the Contribution Equivalent Premium and the restoration of state scheme rights will operate under, and interact with, the State Second Pension provisions. These are the provisions which deal with the necessary calculations for those who are contracted back into the State scheme because, for instance, their contracted-out employment terminates after less than 2 years. As above, this power is to be used to ensure that no one loses out because they had a period in contracted-out, rather than contracted-in, employment.