Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012
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Payment of pension, etc. |
32.— (1) In respect of the service of a Scheme member, pension benefit and lump sum benefit (including any such benefit that is a preserved pension or a preserved lump sum) accrued under the Scheme shall only be paid in accordance with this Part. | |
(2) Pensions payable under this Part shall be paid in arrears by a relevant authority and shall continue— | ||
(a) throughout the life of the former Scheme member concerned, and | ||
(b) where appropriate, after the former Scheme member’s death, during the period of entitlement in respect of any other person concerned. | ||
(3) Where either or both a pension and lump sum benefit are payable under the Scheme to a relevant person with respect to whom the relevant authority is satisfied, on the certificate of a registered medical practitioner to whom subsection (6) applies, that the relevant person is unable by reason of mental or physical disability to give a receipt for the amount, that authority may, unless a court of competent jurisdiction has otherwise ordered, pay either or both the pension and lump sum benefit— | ||
(a) wholly or partly to any institution or person having care of the relevant person, or | ||
(b) as to part thereof, to any institution or person having care of the relevant person and, as to the remainder, wholly or partly to either or both— | ||
(i) the spouse or civil partner of the relevant person, and | ||
(ii) such persons as the relevant authority considers to be dependants of the relevant person, | ||
and in such manner as the relevant authority thinks fit. | ||
(4) Nothing in subsection (3) affects any enduring power of attorney provided for in accordance with Part II of the Powers of Attorney Act 1996 . | ||
(5) Any payments made under this section shall discharge such relevant authority as makes them as fully as if they were made directly to the relevant person. | ||
(6) For the purposes of subsection (3) the certificate of a registered medical practitioner shall only be admissible if the practitioner satisfies the relevant authority that he or she has practised medicine for a period of 6 years since— | ||
(a) his or her name was entered in the register of medical practitioners, or | ||
(b) where the medical assessment to which the certificate relates has been carried out in a place outside the State, being entitled to practise medicine under the law of such place. | ||
(7) In this section “relevant person” means a person in receipt of a pension under the Scheme. |