Regulation 16 Contributions during reserve forces service leaveI1

This regulation applies to a person who–

The person must pay contributions under regulation 4 (contributions payable by active members) of the Benefits Regulations and any payments under regulation 20 (payment of additional regular contributions) of these Regulations or regulation 54 of the 1998 Regulations (payments to increase total membership) which that person was paying immediately before the relevant reserve forces service began if (and only if) that person’s reserve forces pay during the service equals or exceeds the pay that person would have received if that person had continued to be employed in the former employment.

Those contributions continue to be payable to the appropriate fund at the same rates on that pay.

If the person is not obliged to pay contributions under paragraph (2) the person must be treated for the purposes of these Regulations and the Benefits Regulations as if the person had paid them and also any payments under regulation 20 (payment of additional regular contributions) of these Regulations or regulation 54 of the 1998 Regulations which the person would have been liable to pay if the person had continued to be employed in the former employment.

If the person was paying any contributions under regulation 22(1) (additional voluntary contributions and shared cost additional voluntary contributions) immediately before the leave began–

The person’s relevant reserve forces service counts as a period of membership in that person’s former employment.

If during that service, the person–

the person must be treated as if the person were in that employment at that time.

In this regulation–

• “cancelling notice” in relation to a person’s relevant reserve forces service, means–

  1. (a)

     an agreement, by a member who has not waived his or her right to receive a return of contributions under regulation 41 (rights to return of contributions), to receive a return of contributions; or

  2. (b)

     a notice in writing given by the person to the appropriate administering authority not later than 12 months after the end of the period of service to which the notice relates (or within such longer period as the administering authority may allow) that the service should not be treated as relevant reserve forces service;

• “relevant reserve forces service” means service (other than service for the purposes of training only or service for a period in respect of which a cancelling notice has been served)–

  1. (a)

     in pursuance of any notice or directions given under any enactment which provides for the calling out on permanent service, or the calling into actual service, or the embodiment of, any reserve or auxiliary force, or members of such a force, or the recall of service pensioners;

  2. (b)

     in pursuance of any obligation or undertaking to serve when called upon as a commissioned officer; or

  3. (c)

     rendered by virtue of section 14(1) or 34 of the Reserve Forces Act 1980^f1,

  and paragraph (b) applies whether or not the obligation or undertaking is legally enforceable, but not in the case of an obligation or undertaking to accept a permanent commission or a commission for a fixed term or to serve for the purposes of periodical training;

• “reserve forces pay” in relation to any person, is the total of–

  1. (a)

     the person’s pay for performing relevant reserve forces service (including marriage, family and similar allowances); and

  2. (b)

     any payments under Part 5 of the Reserve and Auxiliary Forces (Protection of Civil Interests) Act 1951^f2;

• “reserve forces service leave” in relation to a person, means being away from work–

  1. (a)

     after the person–

     1. (i)

        has left the employment in which the person is an active member; or

     2. (ii)

        has been granted leave of absence from such an employment,

     in order to perform relevant reserve forces service;

  2. (b)

     without having agreed to receive a return of contributions under regulation 41; and

  3. (c)

     without having elected that the absence is not to count as such by giving notice in writing to the appropriate administering authority not later than 12 months after the end of the period of relevant reserve forces service to which the notice relates (or within such longer period as the administering authority may allow);

• “reserve or auxiliary force” means the whole or part of the Royal Navy Reserve (including the Royal Fleet Reserve), the Royal Marines Reserve, the Territorial Army, the Army Reserve, the Air Force Reserve, the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve or the Royal Auxiliary Air Force; and

• “service pensioner” means a person in receipt of a pension (other than a pension awarded in respect of disablement) granted–

  1. (a)

     in respect of service in the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the regular army and the regular air force or any reserve or auxiliary force which has been called out on permanent service or which has been embodied; or

  2. (b)

     in respect of that and other service.