The Local Government Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 1998

Optional contributions during absences

17.—(1) If a member–

(a)is away from his employment with permission (otherwise than because of illness or injury) for a continuous period of more than 30 days; and

(b)is receiving reduced or no pay,

he may make contributions under regulation 16 at the standard contribution rate for the whole period of his absence or, if it exceeds 36 months, for 36 months, on the pay he would have received but for his absence.

(2) If–

(a)a person who is a member or has applied to be a member goes on maternity leave; and

(b)for the whole or part of the period of her maternity absence (“the unpaid period”) she is not entitled to receive pay (including any statutory maternity pay payable to her under the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992(1)) but is a member,

she may make contributions under regulation 16 at the standard contribution rate as respects the unpaid period, as if her pay in the employment were equal to the pay she was entitled to receive immediately before the unpaid period began (including any such statutory pay, but not any amount by which her actual pay is reduced on account of her possible entitlement to such statutory pay).

(3) If a person–

(a)is away from work without permission for a period of one or more days during and because of a trade dispute (“a trade dispute absence”); and

(b)was a member immediately before that period (or, where two or more periods of absence have occurred in consequence of one such dispute, the first such period),

he may make a contribution under regulation 16 for the relevant contribution period at the rate of 16 per cent. on his lost pay for that period.

(4) A person’s lost pay is the difference between–

(a)his actual pay (if any); and

(b)the pay he would have received but for any trade dispute absence,

(disregarding any guarantee payments under Part III of the Employment Rights Act 1996(2)).

(5) A period is a person’s relevant contribution period if–

(a)it is coextensive with one of the intervals at which he was required under regulation 11 to make standard contributions; and

(b)it includes all or part of his trade dispute absence.

(6) To make contributions under this regulation a person must apply to the employing authority in writing before the expiry of the period of 30 days beginning with the day on which he returns to work or such longer period as the authority may allow.

(7) However, if he ceases to be employed by that authority without returning to work, he may apply under paragraph (6) only before the expiry of the period of 30 days beginning with the day he so ceases or such longer period as they may allow.

(8) An application under paragraph (6) or (7) may be made by the person’s executors if he has died without making such an application.

(9) The termination of a person’s contract of employment in consequence of a trade dispute does not prevent this regulation applying to him if he again becomes an employee of the same Scheme employer and a member not later than the day after the dispute ends.