This Act may be cited as the National Provident Fund Amendment Act, 1931, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the National Provident Fund Act, 1926 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

In this and the next succeeding section the term “pension-scheme” includes all the terms and conditions subject to which a local authority has heretofore become or hereafter becomes a contributor to the Fund pursuant to section twenty-five of the principal Act.

The right conferred by section thirty-four of the principal Act on a local authority being a contributor to the Fund to reduce its contributions so as to provide for a reduced rate of pension for any person or persons in its service shall not be or be deemed to have been limited by any of the terms and conditions of the pension-scheme.

Where by the terms and conditions of a pension-scheme provision is made for the computation of the pension of any person by reference to the rate of his salary or wages at the date when the local authority becomes a contributor to the Fund on his behalf (hereinafter referred to as the commencing rate), or by reference to any increased rate of salary or wages which he may thereafter become entitled to receive, such terms and conditions shall be read as making provision for the computation of such pension by reference to the rate of salary or wages on which the contributions payable to the Fund in respect thereof are based on a date three years prior to the commencement of the pension, notwithstanding that such rate may be less than the commencing rate or any rate subsequent thereto.

Where a local authority is a contributor to the Fund in respect of any person in its service, on terms which provide for the computation of his pension by reference to the rate of his salary or wages at some point of time during his period of service, then, notwithstanding that (whether before or after the passing of this Act) there may have been a reduction in the rate of his salary or wages, the local authority may elect to continue to contribute as if there had been no such reduction, and in such case the pension, when payable, shall be computed as if the rate of salary or wages had not been reduced, and the local authority may continue to make deductions from the salary or wages, under the authority of section twenty-seven of the principal Act, as if there had been no such reduction.

Where by the terms and conditions of a pension-scheme as defined in the last preceding section, provision is made for the payment of pensions at unspecified rates (the rate of pension payable to any person on his retirement from the service of a local authority being ascertained in any such case by reference to his length of service and the rate of his salary or wages at some point of time during his period of service), every increase or reduction by the local authority of the salary or wages of any person in its service, made at any time earlier than three years before his retirement, shall for the purposes of section thirty-four of the principal Act be deemed to constitute an election by the local authority to increase or reduce its contributions, as the case may be, so as to provide for an increased or reduced rate of pension for such person:

Provided that nothing herein shall be construed to limit the provisions of subsection four of the last preceding section.

Subject to the foregoing provisions of this section, section thirty-four of the principal Act shall apply, and be deemed at all times heretofore to have applied, to cases where a pension-scheme provides for the payment of pensions at unspecified rates in the same manner as it applies to cases where the rates of pensions are specified in the pension-scheme.

The said section thirty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended as follows:—

The Board may in its discretion refuse to receive any application under section seventeen of the principal Act for an allowance from the Fund in respect of any period of incapacity earlier than twelve months before the date of such application, and may also refuse to receive any application under section nineteen or section forty-three of the said Act for payment from the Fund in respect of the birth of any child unless such application is made within twelve months after the date of birth, or, in the case of a child born before the passing of this Act, within twelve months after the passing of this Act.

Section seventeen of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding to subsection five the following proviso:—