# The British Transport (Pensions of Employees) (No. 2) Order 1968, Note: Explanatory note


This Order deals with the preservation of the pension rights of persons who because of any of the various reorganisations in the nationalised transport industry provided for in the Transport Act 1968 either lose their employment or suffer diminution of emoluments or a change in the nature or terms of their employment.
In the case of a person who loses his employment, the pension accrued up to the date on which he was discharged is normally to be paid to him at age 65 (age 60 for a woman) or at such time as, by the terms of his employment or of his pension scheme, he would have been entitled to receive a pension (Articles 3(2), 5(1)(a), 6(2) and 7(2)(a)). A discharged person may, however, elect within 3 months of his discharge to have a return of contributions if the rules of his pension scheme permit this; but, if he does so, he will have no other rights under the Order (Article 2). Where the value of the accrued pension rights is small, the appropriate body as defined in Article 1(3) (or in the case of an insurance scheme, the life assurance company) may, in certain circumstances and at their option, commute their liability by an immediate lump sum payment (Articles 5(1)(b), 6(3) and 7(2)(b)).
The appropriate body may discharge its liability to preserve a discharged person's accrued pension rights by arranging for a life assurance company to make the payments at the appropriate time (Articles 5(3) and 7(4)).
In certain cases, where the new employment obtained by a discharged person is pensionable, the appropriate body may, with the prior agreement of the discharged person, pay or arrange for the payment to that person's new pension scheme of the sum representing the value of that person's rights in his former scheme (Article 8).
A person who does not lose his employment but who suffers a reduction in pay may be allowed to continue to contribute to, and benefit from, his pension scheme on the basis of his former pay. Similarly, if such a person is transferred from a pensionable to a non-pensionable grade he can, within 3 months, choose to remain in his pension scheme, though if he does not choose to do this his pension rights will be preserved in the same way as if he had been discharged (Article 9).
Provision is made for contributions between the nationalised transport bodies (Article 10) and for the settlement of disputes (Article 11).
The Order has effect from 18th November 1968, by virtue of S. 74(7) of the Transport Act 1962.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1968/2012/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/british-transport-pensions-of-employees-no-2-order-1968/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.