Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) Subject to this
section, a contributor who retires on or after the appointed day and thereby
becomes entitled to receive pension under section 60, may, within the
period commencing one month prior to and ending 3 months after the date
of his retirement, elect to commute the whole or any part of the Fund share of
his pension to an equivalent entitlement by way of a lump sum payment.
(2) A person who, on
or after the appointed day but before the assent day, became the widow of a
contributor or pensioner may, within the period of 6 months after the
death of her husband or within the period of 3 months after her attaining
the age of 60 years, whichever is the later, elect to commute the whole
or any part of the Fund share of her widow’s pension to an equivalent
entitlement by way of a lump sum payment.
(3) A person
who —
(a) was
immediately prior to the appointed day the widow of a contributor or
pensioner; and
(b)
attains the age of 60 years on or after the appointed day,
may, within the period
of 3 months after her attaining the age of 60 years, elect to
commute the whole or any part of the Fund share of her widow’s pension
to an equivalent entitlement by way of a lump sum payment.
(3a) A person who
becomes a widow of a contributor or pensioner on or after the date of
commencement of this subsection may, within 6 months after the death of
her husband, elect to commute not more than ¼ of the Fund share of her
widow’s pension to an equivalent entitlement by way of a lump sum
payment.
(3b) A person who, on
or after the assent day, becomes the widow of a contributor or pensioner may,
within 6 months after the death of her husband, elect to commute the
whole or any part of the Fund share of her widow’s pension to an
equivalent entitlement by way of a lump sum payment.
(3c) A person who
becomes the widower of a contributor or pensioner may, within 6 months
after the death of the contributor or pensioner, elect to commute the whole or
any part of the Fund share of the widower’s pension to an equivalent
entitlement by way of a lump sum payment.
(4) Subject to the
succeeding provisions of this section, an election that is made in accordance
with this section takes effect —
(a)
30 days after it is received by the Board; or
(b) on
such date as is expressed therein for that purpose by the contributor,
whichever is the later
date, and the lump sum payment to which the contributor becomes entitled by
reason of the making of the election is payable to the person by whom the
election was made on that later date.
(5) Where an election
made in accordance with this section is received by the
Board —
(a) it
may not be revoked by the person by whom it was made; and
(b) it
is revoked if the person by whom it was made dies prior to the day on which
the lump sum payment is payable pursuant to subsection (4),
but where that person
dies on or after the day on which the lump sum payment is so payable but
before payment of the lump sum has actually been made, the lump sum payment
shall be paid to that person’s personal representatives.
(6) A person is not
entitled, except in the prescribed circumstances, to make more than one
election under this section, but nothing in this subsection shall be construed
as preventing —
(a) a
person who has made an election under subsection (3a) from making a
further election under subsection (2); or
(b) a
person who becomes entitled to more than one pension from making an election
in respect of each pension.
(7) Where a lump sum
payment becomes payable to a person pursuant to an election made under
subsection (1), (2), (3), (3a) or (3b), that person ceases to be entitled
to be paid pension in respect of that part of the Fund share of the pension to
which the election related, but an election made by a person under
subsection (1) does not affect or reduce any pension which may become
payable to the widow of that person.
(8) An election made
by a person under subsection (1) is of no effect insofar as it seeks to
commute any part of the Fund share of a pension that is payable in respect of
an ineligible unit.
(9) An election made
under subsection (1) by a person who elects to retire before the age for
which he elected to contribute is of no effect unless he has contributed in
respect of each ineligible unit, the same contributions which he would have
paid if he had not retired until he attained that age.
(10) In this
section —
appointed day means 31 December 1973;
assent day means the day on which the
Superannuation and Family Benefits Amendment Act 1985 receives the Royal
Assent;
equivalent entitlement by way of a lump sum
payment in relation to a commutation of part of the pension payable to a
person means such lump sum payment as is determined by the Board on the
recommendation of an Actuary to be the equivalent, in a lump sum form of the
part of the pension which after commutation will cease to be payable to that
person;
Fund share , in relation to a pension, means the
part of the pension which is certified by the Board to be attributable to the
contributions made by the contributor for that pension;
ineligible unit means any unit for which less than
5 years’ regular fortnightly contributions have been made prior to
retirement, except where —
(a) the
election to contribute for the unit is validly made under section 37(10)
or under subsection (11) of that section as in force prior to the date on
which the Superannuation and Family Benefits Act Amendment Act 1976
received the Royal Assent 1 ; or
(b) the
contributor has not less than 3 years prior to the date of his retirement
completed the payment of all contributions which would have been payable in
respect of the unit if the contributor had retired at the age for which he
elected to contribute.
[Section 60D inserted by No. 75 of 1973
s.16; amended by No. 134 of 1976 s.17; No. 78 of 1985 s.5; amended
in Gazette 26 May 2006 p. 1932 22 .]