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Chapter: | 99
 | Title: | PENSION BENEFITS ORDINANCE | Gazette Number: | 63 of 1999 |
| Section: | 24 | Heading: | Commuted pension gratuity and reduced pension | Version Date: | 01/07/1997 |
Adaptation amendments retroactively made - see 63 of 1999 s. 3
(1) Subject to subsections (5) and (7), an officer to whom any pension is to be granted under this Ordinance, other than a pension under section 14 and an additional pension under section 15, shall, if he has exercised his option in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) of this section, be paid, in lieu of any such pension or aggregate of the pensions, a reduced pension at the rate of 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90 or 95% of the pension, or a similar percentage of the aggregate of the pensions, according to the option exercised, together with a commuted pension gratuity equal to 14 times the amount of the reduction so made in the annual pension or aggregate annual pensions.
(2) The option referred to in subsection (1) shall be exercised, and if it has been exercised may be revoked, not later than the day immediately preceding the date of such officer's retirement or, in the case of a deferred pension, not later than the date immediately preceding the date on which such officer attains the age when the deferred pension is payable under section 7(a):
Provided that the Chief Executive may, if it appears to him equitable in all the circumstances so to do, allow an officer in any particular case to exercise the option, or revoke an option previously exercised, at any time between that date and the actual date when the pension or aggregate pensions is payable for the first time. (Amended 63 of 1999 s. 3)
(3) The option referred to in subsection (1) shall-
- (a) be in writing addressed to the Director of Accounting Services; and
(b) state the rate of the reduced pension, in accordance with that subsection, in the annual pension or aggregate of the annual pension,
(4) Subject to the provisions of subsection (2) as regards the revocation of an option, an option exercised under that subsection shall be irrevocable.
(5) An officer who dies before exercising an option under subsection (1) but after he has retired shall be deemed to have exercised the option to reduce his pension or aggregate pensions by 50% and the commuted pension gratuity and reduced pension shall be paid in accordance with subsection (1).
- (6) (a) Subject to paragraph (c) and subsection (7), a commuted pension gratuity shall be payable-
- (i) in case the relevant pension is a deferred pension, when that pension is payable under section 7 for the first time;
(ii) in case a direction is given by the Chief Executive under section 11(2) in relation to the relevant pension, when that pension would be payable for the first time if it were a deferred pension;
(iii) in any other case, when the relevant reduced pension is payable under this Ordinance for the first time.
- (b) The Chief Executive may, as regards a particular case, direct that a commuted pension gratuity shall be payable on a day specified in the direction, being a day which is earlier than the day on which the gratuity would otherwise fall to be paid under paragraph (a).
(c) Where the Chief Executive gives a direction under this subsection, the commuted pension gratuity to which the direction relates shall be payable on the day specified in the direction. (Replaced 61 of 1988 s. 5. Amended 63 of 1999 s. 3)