Clergy Pensions Measure, 1961
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | measure 1961 No. 3 |
| Year | 1961 |
Clergy Pensions Measure, 1961
(9 & 10 Eliz. 2)
A MEASURE passed by the National Assembly of the Church of England
To consolidate with amendments the Acts of Parliament and Measures of the Church Assembly relating to pensions for clergy and their widows and dependants and to the powers of the Church of England Pensions Board; to provide for increases in the pensions payable to clergy and for making the pensions payable to bishops no longer contributory; to provide for pensions which are not contributory for certain widows of clergy; to confer on the Church of England Pensions Board power to provide homes of residence for retired church workers and their wives and for the widows and dependants of deceased church workers, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
Part I
Pensions for Clergy
1 Entitlement to pension.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Measure, any clerk in Holy Orders (hereafter in this Measure referred to as a ‘clerk’) who retires on or after the first day of April, nineteen hundred and sixty-one, after performing a qualifying period of pensionable service shall be entitled to receive from the Commissioners for the remainder of his life—
( a ) if he retires on or after attaining the retiring age, a pension at the rate applicable to him under Part I of the First Schedule to this Measure;
( b ) if he retires before attaining the retiring age on the ground that he has become incapable through infirmity of performing the duties of his office, a pension at the rate applicable to him under Part II of the said Schedule; or
( c ) if he retires before attaining the retiring age but not more than five years before he would have attained that age (not being a clerk mentioned in the last foregoing paragraph), a pension at the rate applicable to him under Part III of that Schedule.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, the expression ‘pensionable service’ for the purposes of this Measure means—
( a ) whole time ecclesiastical service within the area to which this Measure applies in connection with a diocese, cathedral or parish, or in connection with the collegiate churches of Westminster or Windsor;
( b ) service which is to be treated as pensionable service by virtue of an agreement under the next following subsection;
and the expression a ‘qualifying period of pensionable service’ means a period of pensionable service of not less than ten years, or a succession of periods of such service (either with or without intervals) amounting in the aggregate to not less than ten years:
Provided that in relation to any individual clerk the Board with the concurrence of the Commissioners may in exceptional circumstances substitute for the references in this section to ten years references to such shorter period as the Board may determine.
(3) The Board may enter into an agreement with any clerk under which any service performed by him as a clerk, whether within or outside the area to which this Measure applies, may be treated as pensionable service for the purposes of this Measure, and any such agreement may, if the Board think fit, require the clerk concerned to pay to the Commissioners such sum or sums of money as the Board may determine having regard to the nature of the service performed and to the cost of treating that service as pensionable service.
(4) Any period of service in respect of which a clerk is a member of any pension or superannuation scheme other than that established by this Measure or the National Insurance Acts, 1946 to 1960, shall not be treated as pensionable service for the purposes of this Measure:
Provided that, if the clerk ceases to be a member of that other scheme before becoming entitled to a pension thereunder, the Board may enter into an agreement with that clerk under which the said period of service may be treated as pensionable service for the purposes-of this Measure, and any such agreement may, if the Board think fit, require the clerk concerned to pay to the Commissioners such sum or sums of money as the Board may determine.
(5) Where there is an interval not exceeding three months between two periods of pensionable service performed by any clerk, then for the purpose of determining whether that clerk has performed a qualifying period of pensionable service or of determining the length of the qualifying period of pensionable service performed by him, he shall be treated as having performed pensionable service during that interval.
(6) Subject to the provisions of the last foregoing subsection, where any period of service begins otherwise than on the first day of any month, the period of service shall be treated for the purposes of this Measure as beginning on the first day of the next following month, and where a period of service ends otherwise than on the last day of any month, it shall be treated for the purposes of this Measure as having ended on the last day of the immediately preceding month.
2 Provision as to rates of pension.
(1) The Commissioners shall have power to give to the Board, either on one occasion or on successive occasions, directions for increasing the rates of pension payable under the foregoing section or the rate of pension payable under that section to any class of persons.
(2) The Commissioners may, at the request of the Board, authorise the Board to augment, by such sum as may be specified in the authorisation and during such period as may be so specified, the pension payable under the foregoing section to any individual clerk.
(3) The Board, if they consider that the total income of any clerk who is in receipt of a pension under this Measure is or is likely to be at a rate less than such yearly rate as the Board, with the concurrence of the Commissioners, may from time to time determine, shall authorise the Commissioners to pay to that clerk such supplementary pension as will bring his total income up to that yearly rate.
In this subsection the expression ‘total income’ means in relation to a clerk the total income of that clerk from all sources as estimated by the Board, and in the case of a clerk who is living with his wife means the aggregate of his total income and that of his wife as so estimated:
Provided that in estimating the total income of any person the Board may disregard such part of the income of that person as in the special circumstances of the case they think fit.
(4) Where a clerk who is entitled to a pension under this Measure dies within twelve months of entering upon his pension, the Commissioners shall pay to his legal personal representatives the pension that would have been payable to him under the foregoing section in respect of one year less any instalment thereof previously paid to him, and in calculating the pension that would have been payable to him as aforesaid the Commissioners shall not take into account any augmentation or supplementary pension authorised under this section.
3 Retirement on grounds of permanent infirmity.
(1) A clerk shall not be entitled to receive a pension under this Measure on the ground that he has become incapable through infirmity of performing the duties of his office unless the Board are satisfied after considering medical evidence that he is so incapable and that the infirmity is likely to be permanent:
Provided that the Board, in addition to considering medical evidence for the purposes of this subsection, may consider such other evidence as in their opinion is necessary.
(2) A clerk who is dissatisfied with a decision of the Board under the last foregoing subsection that he is not incapable as aforesaid or that the infirmity is not likely to be permanent may appeal therefrom to a board of two or more referees appointed by the Board as suitable persons to consider that appeal, and the decision of the board so appointed shall be final.
4 Suspension or reduction of pension in case of service after retirement.
(1) If a clerk who is in receipt of a pension under this Measure or any Measure repealed by this Measure accepts office as a diocesan bishop, suffragan bishop, archdeacon, dean, provost, residentiary canon or incumbent of a benefice, whether within or outside the area to which this Measure applies, the Board shall suspend his pension so long as he holds that office.
(2) If a clerk who—
( a ) is in receipt of a pension under this Measure or any Measure repealed by this Measure, and
( b ) has not attained the retiring age,
performs after his retirement service which is pensionable service (not being service in an office mentioned in the last foregoing subsection), the Board shall have power to suspend or reduce the pension as they think fit.
(3) Where the pension of a clerk who has retired after performing less than forty years' pensionable service is suspended or reduced under this section, then, on his second retirement, he shall be paid a pension at such rate as the Board think fit having regard to the additional period of pensionable service performed, not being a rate lower than that received by him before the pension was suspended or reduced.
(4) The rate of pension payable to any clerk under this Measure shall not be increased by reason of the performance by him of pensionable service...
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