Page 26 - Group Insurance and Retirement Benefit IC 83 E- Book

were earned, provided only that you have been a scheme member for two years or more.

In defined benefit schemes, these benefits will be subject to ―revaluation‖ between 1996
(or later date of leaving service) and the time you collect your benefits.

Can I take a refund of contributions made to the scheme by

(i) myself and

(ii) my employer?
If you are entitled to a preserved benefit under the Pensions Act, you will have no right to

take a refund of your own contributions. This also applies to voluntary contributions. If,
however, you have not completed enough service (two years as a member of the scheme,

or any scheme of the employer, or any scheme from which rights have been transferred)

to acquire rights to preserved pension, you can take a refund of all your own
contributions, subject to whatever the rules of your scheme provide. Interest may or may

not be payable, depending on the detailed rules of your own scheme. The tax currently
payable on a refund of contributions is 20%.

You can never take a refund of the contributions made by your employer to the scheme

on leaving service. Also, certain industry-wide schemes that provide for transferability

between participating employers do not allow contribution refunds at all.‖

Will a transfer value buy an equivalent period of service in a new scheme?

In general terms, the answer to this is ―no‖. It is usually up to the trustees of the receiving
scheme to decide what credit you are given in the new scheme in return for any transfer

value paid in.

This decision will generally be made on the advice of the scheme actuary. No two
schemes are the same in every detail but, even if they were, the benefits which you take

from the first scheme are likely to be calculated on your pay at the time you leave service,

not on the pay you will be receiving when you retire from the service of the second
employer.