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SOCIAL SECURITY PENSIONS (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1975 - SECT 37

37.(1) An earner has a guaranteed minimum in relation to the pension provided
by a scheme in accordance with Article 35 if, in any tax week in a relevant
year, earnings have been paid to or for the benefit of the earner in respect
of contracted-out employment by reference to the scheme, being earnings in
excess of the current lower earnings limit or the prescribed equivalent if he
is paid otherwise than weekly.

(2) Where an earner has a guaranteed minimum as aforesaid, that minimum shall,
subject to paragraph (6), be the weekly equivalent of an amount equal to the
appropriate percentage of the total of his earnings factors for the relevant
years so far as derived from contributions paid in respect of such earnings as
are mentioned in paragraph (1).

(3) In paragraph (2) "the appropriate percentage" means

(a)if the earner is not more than 20 years under pensionable age when this
Article comes into force, 1 per cent.;

(b)in any other case 25/N per cent. where N is the number of years in the
earner's working life (assuming that he will attain pensionable age) which
fall after the coming into force of this Article;

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (2) the weekly equivalent of the amount
there mentioned shall be calculated by dividing that amount by 52...

(5) For the purposes of paragraph (2) the earner's earnings factor for any
relevant year (so far as derived as mentioned in that paragraph) shall,
subject to paragraph (7), be taken to be that factor as increased by [the last
order under Article 23 to come into force] before the end of the final
relevant year.

(6) Where in accordance with Article 35(3) the commencement of an earner's
guaranteed minimum pension is postponed for any period and there are at least
[seven] complete weeks in that period, his guaranteed minimum in relation to
the scheme shall, for each complete week in that period, be increased by
[1/7th] per cent.

(a)of the amount of that minimum apart from this paragraph; or

(b)if for that week (or a period which includes that week) a pension is paid
to him under the scheme at a weekly rate less than that minimum, of the
difference between that pension and that minimum.

In this paragraph "week" means any period of seven consecutive days.

(7) The scheme may provide that the earnings factors of an earner whose
service in contracted-out employment by reference to the scheme is terminated
before he attains [pensionable age] shall be determined for the purposes of
paragraph (2) without reference to any order that comes into force under
Article 23 after the relevant year in which his service is terminated; but in
that event the scheme shall provide for the weekly equivalent mentioned in
that paragraph to be increased by at least

(a)5 per cent. compound for each relevant year after that year; or

(b)the amount by which an earnings factor for that year equal to that weekly
equivalent would be increased by [the last order under Article 23 to come into
force] before the end of the final relevant year,

(8) Paragraph (7) applies only so as to permit the same such provision to be
made for all members of the scheme.

(9) In this Article "relevant year" means any tax year in the earner's working
life (not being earlier than the first tax year for which lower and upper
earnings limits are specified under Article 3) and "final relevant year" means
the last tax year which is a relevant year in relation to the earner.

[(10) Where sums are payable to a person by virtue of paragraph (6) (including
such sums payable by virtue of Article 38(3)) during a period ending with the
date on which he became entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement
pension, then, for the purpose of determining the amount of his Category A or
Category B retirement pension, orders made during that period under
section 120 of the principal Act corresponding to orders made under section
126A of the Social Security Act 1975 shall be deemed to have come into force
(consecutively in the order in which they were made) on the date on which he
became entitled to that pension.]

© 1975 Crown Copyright

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