asked the Minister for the Environment if he will state in respect of the superannuation scheme recommended in the Interim Report of the Working Party (Prl 6415), (a) the principal changes recommended (b) the date on which the detailed instructions on the operation of the scheme were issued to local authorities and (c) if his Department will arrange for a reprint of the Report in the form of a booklet on the lines of recent publications of the Department of Labour on protective legislation.
Written Answers. - Local Authority Superannuation.
296.
The Report of the Working Party on Local Authority Superannuation contains a total of 33 recommendations, the majority of which will be applicable as a package, on the basis of options by pensionable officers and pensionable servants. The relative importance of each recommendation will depend on the particular circumstances of the individual. Among the more important recommendations made in relation to officers are the payment of maximum lump sums after 40, instead of 45, years of service; the preservation of accrued superannuation benefits for those who resign voluntarily before age 60; and the facility to allow persons who would have short service on retirement to purchase additional years of pension credit.
The pension rights of servants are being brought into line as far as possible with the pension rights of officers, and, in their case, the more important recommendations provide for the payment of lump sums on retirement, calculated on the same basis as for officers; the coordination of pensions with Social Welfare pensions in respect of service on or after the operative date; improved arrangements for the reckoning of service; and the addition of years to service in cases of early retirement on the grounds of permanent infirmity.
Detailed instructions on the operation of the scheme giving effect to the recommendations contained in the report have not yet been issued to local authorities, but the intention is that each pensionable employee will be provided with a copy of the scheme and also with an explanatory memorandum designed to assist him in understanding the effects of the scheme and in deciding whether or not to have it applied to him. Copies of the actual report are available for purchase at the Government Publications Sales Office; while these are in stencilled form at present, a printed version should be available not later than 1st November.