Section 60 Increase of disablement pension for special hardship
The weekly rate of a disablement pension shall, subject to the following provisions of this section, be increased by an amount not exceeding the appropriate amount specified in Schedule 4, Part V, paragraph 6, if as the result of the relevant loss of faculty the beneficiary—
is incapable, and likely to remain permanently incapable, of following his regular occupation ; and
is incapable of following employment of an equivalent standard which is suitable in his case,
or if as the result of the relevant loss of faculty the beneficiary is, and has at all times since the end of the injury benefit period been, incapable of following that occupation or any such employment.
In subsection (1) above—
the reference to a person's regular occupation is to be taken as not including any subsidiary occupation of his;
the reference to employment of an equivalent standard is to be taken as not including employment other than employed earner's employment;
and in assessing the standard of remuneration in any employment, including a person's regular occupation, regard is to be had to his reasonable prospects of advancement.
For the purposes of this section, a person's regular occupation is to be treated as extending to and including employment in the capacities to which the persons in that occupation (or a class or description of them to which he belonged at the time of the relevant accident) are in the normal course advanced, and to which, if he had continued to follow that occupation without having suffered the relevant loss of faculty, he would have had at least the normal prospects of advancement; and so long as he is, as a result of the relevant loss of faculty, deprived in whole or in part of those prospects, he is to be treated as incapable of following that occupation.
Regulations may for the purposes of this section provide that a person is not to be treated as capable of following an occupation or employment merely because of his working thereat during a period of trial or for purposes of rehabilitation or training or in other prescribed circumstances.
An unemployability supplement and an increase of pension under this section shall not be payable for the same period.
Subject to subsection (5) above, an increase of pension under this section shall be payable for such period as may be determined at the time it is granted, but may be renewed from time to time, and the amount of the increase shall be determined by reference to the beneficiary's probable standard of remuneration during the period for which it is granted in the employed earner's employments, if any, which are suitable in his case and which he is likely to be capable of following as compared with that in his regular occupation within the meaning of subsection (1) above.
Regulations may make as respects a disablement gratuity provision corresponding to that made by this section as respects a disablement pension, and may include provision for payment of a pension in lieu of a gratuity.