Pensions (Amendment) Bill

Bill No. 31/1984

Read the first time on 19th October 1984.
An Act to amend the Pensions Act (Chapter 55 of the Revised Edition).
Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:
Short title
1.  This Act may be cited as the Pensions (Amendment) Act 1984.
Amendment of section 16
2.  Section 16 of the Pensions Act is amended —
(a)by deleting subsection (1) and substituting the following subsection:
(1)  Where an officer dies in the public service in Singapore, there shall be paid to such of his dependants as the President may think fit, or if there are no dependants, to his legal personal representative, a gratuity —
(a)in the case of an officer holding a pensionable office, of an amount equal to 1/120 of one year’s pensionable emoluments for each complete month of service but such gratuity shall not be less than one year’s or more than 3 years’ pensionable emoluments;
(b)in any other case one year’s salary or his commuted annual allowance gratuity, whichever is the greater.”; and
(b)by deleting subsection (4) and substituting the following subsections:
(4)  A gratuity (except for commuted annual allowance gratuity) to be granted under subsection (1) or (2) shall be reduced —
(a)in the case of an officer transferred to the service of the Government from the service of an authority mentioned in Part II of the Second Schedule under any written law for the time being in force providing that service with that authority shall be deemed to have been service with the Government for the purposes of this Act —
(i)by the total amount paid by the Government and that authority to any of the funds mentioned in Part I of the Second Schedule, excluding the amount paid on account of the officer if he is on the pensionable establishment with respect to such service, or an equivalent amount if he is not on the pensionable establishment with respect to such service with the Government and with that authority, together with the interest accrued thereon; and
(ii)by the sum of money, if any, payable under the Singapore City Council Superannuation Fund for Subordinate Employees Rules 1954 in respect of the death of the officer; and
(b)in the case of an officer not transferred to the service of the Government from the service of an authority as aforesaid and not in the public service on 31st March 1962, by the total amount paid by the Government to the Central Provident Fund, excluding the amount paid on account of the officer if he is on the pensionable establishment with respect to his public service or an equivalent amount if he is not on the pensionable establishment with respect to his public service.
(5)  For the purposes of this section —
“one year’s salary” means the emoluments which would be taken for the purpose of computing any allowance or gratuity granted to the officer if he had retired at the date of his death in the circumstances described in section 7(2)(c);
“commuted annual allowance gratuity” means the gratuity which might have been granted to the officer under any regulation providing for the grant of a reduced annual allowance and a gratuity, if his public service had been wholly in Singapore and if he had retired at the date of his death in the circumstances described in section 7(2)(c); and for the purpose of calculating the same the officer shall be deemed to have elected to be paid an annual allowance at the rate of three-fourths of the annual allowance granted to him.”.
Application of Act
3.  This Act shall apply to the grant of any gratuity under section 16 of the Pensions Act only in respect of an officer who has died in the public service on or after the commencement of this Act.