Section 5
Pensions for serving office-holders after attaining 55 years of age
of Parliamentary Pensions Act 1978
(1)
Where an office-holding Member has —
not less than 8 years’ reckonable service as an office‑holding Member (whether continuously or not);
attained 55 years of age; and
not previously been granted a pension under section 4,he or she may be granted a pension under that section despite the fact that he or she has not ceased to hold office.
(2)
Subsection (1) does not apply to an office‑holding Member who attains 55 years of age on or after 21 May 2011.
(3)
Subject to sections 13 and 15, where any pension is granted before 21 May 2011 to any office-holding Member under section 4 by virtue of subsection (1), payment of that pension as a full or reduced pension stops on or after 21 May 2011 and ceases to be payable to that office‑holding Member for the period that he or she remains an office‑holding Member and any such pension paid in contravention of this subsection must be immediately refunded to the Pension Fund; except that at the end of that period when he or she so ceases to hold office —
all that full or reduced pension which would have been payable, if not for this subsection, between 21 May 2011 and the date he or she so ceases to hold office (both dates inclusive) is then payable in a lump sum (without interest); and
his or her pension under section 4 must be re‑computed by adding the period of reckonable service between the date the pension was granted and 20 May 2011 (both dates inclusive) to the period of his or her former reckonable service which had been used in computing his or her pension.
(4)
Where a person has been granted before 21 May 2011 a pension under section 4 after ceasing to hold office and —
becomes an office-holding Member again after having attained 55 years of age; or
becomes an office-holding Member again before attaining 55 years of age, on his or her attaining that age,the pension stops on or after 21 May 2011 and ceases to be payable to that person for the period that he or she remains an office‑holding Member and any pension paid in contravention of this subsection must be immediately refunded to the Pension Fund; except that at the end of that period when he or she so ceases to hold office —
all that pension which would have been payable, if not for this subsection, between 21 May 2011 and the date he or she so ceases to hold office (both dates inclusive) is then payable in a lump sum (without interest); and
his or her pension under section 4 must be re-computed by adding the period of reckonable service between the date the pension was granted and 20 May 2011 (both dates inclusive) to the period of his or her former reckonable service which had been used in computing his or her pension.