Parliamentary Pensions Act 1978 2020 REVISED EDITION This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021 An Act to provide for the grant of pensions and gratuities in respect of service as Members of Parliament and as holders of ministerial and other offices and for purposes connected therewith. [1 September 1978] PART 1 PRELIMINARY Short title 1. This Act is the Parliamentary Pensions Act 1978. Interpretation 2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires — “elected Member”, “non-constituency Member” and “nominated Member” have the meanings given by Article 39(1)(a), (b) and (c) of the Constitution, respectively; “future Member” means a person — (a) who becomes, by election or appointment, a Member at any time after 1 January 1995 without previously having been, before or after that date, a Member or an office-holding Member; (b) who, having been a Member before 1 January 1995 but not being a Member on that date, becomes, by election or appointment, a Member at any time after that date; or (c) who, being an elected Member on 1 January 1995, becomes — (i) a non‑constituency Member or nominated Member at any time after 1 January 1995 with or without a break in his or her service as a Member; or (ii) an elected Member at any time after 1 January 1995 with a break in his or her service as a Member after that date, and for the purposes of paragraph (c), a Member’s service is deemed not broken but continuous if, following the dissolution of Parliament or his or her seat therein becoming vacant under the provisions of the Constitution, he or she is elected as a Member at the ensuing general election or the ensuing by‑election to fill that vacancy; “Mayor” means a Mayor appointed under rules made under the People’s Association Act 1960; “Member” means a Member of Parliament; “office” means the office of Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Speaker, Senior Minister, Minister, Senior Minister of State, Minister of State, Mayor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Parliamentary Secretary or Political Secretary; “office‑holding Member” means a Member who holds or has held any office and includes a Speaker who is not an elected Member of Parliament; “prescribed commutation factor” and “prescribed discount rate” mean, respectively, such factor and rate as the President prescribes for the purposes of this Act; “reckonable service” means — (a) in relation to service as a Member — service in Parliament as a Member of Parliament on and after 3 June 1959 but not after 20 May 2011; and (b) in relation to service in any office — service in that office on and after 3 June 1959 but not after 20 May 2011. [15/2002; 21/2012] (2) The reference to service in Parliament in the definition of “reckonable service” in subsection (1) is to be read as including a reference to service in the Legislative Assembly on and after 3 June 1959 and before 9 August 1965. (3) Where a Speaker is not, or has not been, an elected Member of Parliament for any period, “salary” means, for that period, the salary payable to him or her in respect of his or her service as Speaker. (4) Despite any other provision of this Act, where for any period a person who is eligible for any pension or other benefit under this Act voluntarily refrains from receiving the whole or any part of any salary due to the person in respect of the office held by him or her, then, in calculating his or her pension or benefit he or she is, for such period, deemed to have received the full salary to which he or she was entitled as holder of that office.
