Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2008

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Miscellaneous amendments of Pensions Act 1990.

29.— (1) The Principal Act is amended—

(a) in section 2(1)—

(i) by inserting the following before the definition of “ actuarial value ”:

“ ‘ accumulated value ’, in relation to contributions, means the amount which the trustees determine to be equal to—

(a) the realisable value of the portion of the resources of the scheme that, in accordance with the rules of the scheme, represents those contributions, less

(b) the amount of so much of the expenses of the scheme as, under the rules of the scheme, are to be discharged out of that portion;”,

and

(ii) by substituting the following for the definition of “ defined contribution scheme ”:

“ ‘ defined contribution scheme ’ means, subject to section 27 , a scheme which, under its rules, provides long service benefit the rate or amount of which, for each member who qualifies for long service benefit, is in total directly determined by the accumulated value of the contributions paid by or in respect of the member and includes a scheme the contributions under which are used, directly or indirectly, to provide—

(a) benefits other than long service benefit, and

(b) long service benefit the rate or amount of which is in total directly determined by the accumulated value of the part of the contributions aforesaid that is used for the provision of the long service benefit,

but, subject to section 27 , excludes any scheme which, under the rules of the scheme, guarantees or specifies a given investment performance;”,

(b) in section 3B(2)(b) by substituting “by a date” for “on a date”,

(c) in section 4 by substituting the following for subsection (1):

“(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any enactment—

(a) information held by the Board or the Pensions Ombudsman for the purposes of this Act may be transferred by the Board or the Pensions Ombudsman, as the case may be, to the Revenue Commissioners, and

(b) information held by the Revenue Commissioners for the purposes of Chapters 1, 2 and 2A of Part 30 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 , relating to occupational pension schemes, trust RACs and PRSAs may be transferred by the Revenue Commissioners to the Board or to the Pensions Ombudsman.”,

(d) in section 27(2) by substituting “the accumulated value of the contributions” for “an amount of contribution”,

(e) in section 30(1) by substituting the following for the definition of “ accumulated value ”:

“ ‘ accumulated value ’, in relation to any appropriate contributions, shall be construed in accordance with section 2;”,

(f) in section 54 by substituting the following for subsection (7):

“(7) Subsections (1) to (6) do not apply to a small trust RAC, but the trustees of a small trust RAC shall furnish to the Board such statistical information as is prescribed for the purposes of this subsection.”,

(g) in section 82 by substituting “in relation to a scheme, trust RAC or PRSA,” for “in relation to a scheme, trust RAC or a PRSA,”,

(h) in section 83—

(i) in subsection (1) by inserting “in relation to” after “PRSA”,

(ii) in subsection (2)—

(I) in paragraph (a) by substituting “2 July 1996” for “the passing of the Pensions (Amendment) Act 1996 ”,

(II) by inserting the following after paragraph (a):

“(aa) in the case of a PRSA, before 7 November 2002,”, and

(III) in paragraph (b) by substituting “27 April 2007,” for “the commencement of Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007 .”,

and

(iii) in section 141 by substituting the following for subsection (4)—

“(4) An application under this section to the Circuit Court shall be made to the judge of the Circuit Court for the circuit in which—

(a) the relevant member or contributor, as the case may be, ordinarily resides, or

(b) the party against whom the determination is made has its registered office (in the case of a company) or place of business.”.

(2) The Principal Act is amended as set out in Schedule 2 .