Page 43 - Group Insurance and Retirement Benefit IC 83 E- Book

Local-Act authorities are empowered to continue their former schemes, but were required

to prepare amending schemes (approved by the Minister of Health) to confer rights,
substantially similar to those under the 1937 Act, upon new entrants who had previously

contributed under another authority.
The transfer value system is extended to include local-Act authorities. A disqualifying

break only occurs after 12 months (as against 6 months previously), and the consent of
the former employer is now no longer required. Return of contributions to the employee

does not remove liability for the payment of a transfer value.

(iii) Local-Act authorities are relatively few in number—London County Council,
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester Corporations, and certain Metropolitan Borough

Councils—and these represent the pioneers in local government superannuation. The

non-contributory Superannuation (Metropolis) Act, 1866, in respect of officers of
Metropolitan parochial bodies and of the Metropolitan Board of Works, paralleled closely

the Superannuation Act, 1859.
Contributory funded schemes for the London County Council and the Metropolitan

Borough Councils came into being from 1895 onwards. Their development followed
generally the Civil Service pattern of benefits, although there were, and still are, many

minor variations, e.g. as regards the death benefit. There is little uniformity in members'

rates of contribution (at present these vary from 2% upwards and may exceed 6 %) or in
the circumstances governing return of contributions with or without interest. The

payments required to purchase full rights in earlier service also vary widely: some
authorities are content with an amount equal to the normal contributions based on actual

remuneration for the period in question ; others charge an additional percentage
contribution payable throughout the remainder of service; yet others use a basis similar to

the additional contributory payments of the 1937 Act; and at least one requires, in effect,

payment of the member's and employer's contributions.
Local-Act authorities are required, under the 1937 Act, to reckon previous service only

where contributors have, at some time since 1939, paid contributions under some other

authority; apart from this statutory requirement, they lay down their own conditions as to
reckon ability.