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Provident Fund Act - Provident Fund (Benefit) (Amendment) Regulations 2008

LAWS OF TUVALU

PROVIDENT FUND (BENEFIT) REGULATION 1984

PROVIDENT (BENEFIT) (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS 2008

LN 13 of 2009

Commencement [11 September 2009]

1 Short title, commencement and interpretations

(1) These Regulations may be cited as Provident Fund (Benefit) (Amendment) Regulations 2008.

(2) These Regulations shall come into operation on a date to be appointed by the Minister by notice.

(3) In these Regulations, "the Regulations" means the Provident Fund (Benefit) Regulation 1984 including all subsequent amendments.

2 Amendments to regulation 12

Regulation 12 of the Regulations is amended —

(a) by repealing sub-regulation (1) in its entirety and substitute with a new paragraph —

"(1) Subject to these Regulations woman‟s home benefit, that is to say a lump sum payable to a female member who has attained the age of 35 years and has left employment for the purpose of caring for her his or her dependants";

(b) by deleting from sub-regulation (2)(b) „and‟ after the semicolon;

(c) by replacing the full stop at the end of paragraph (c) by a „semicolon‟ and insertion of the word „and‟ thereafter; and

(d) by adding the following new paragraph immediately after paragraph (c) —

"(d) her birth certificate".

3 Amendments to regulation 14

Regulation 14 of the Regulations is amended by repealing it in its entirety and substituting the following —

"14 (1) Subject to these Regulations Medical and Educational benefit may be payable, if there are sufficient funds in a members MEDU saving account, to finance the necessary medical or educational services provided to a member and/or member‟s dependant in accordance with the following conditions:

(a) For medical expenses:

(i) payment for traveling costs and hospitalization costs in the event of an overseas referral recommended by a medical practitioner; or

(ii) payment for medical examination (checkup) at an approved hospital either in Tuvalu or overseas; or

(iii) payment for prescribed drugs issued by a medical practitioner provided the cost of drugs is not less than $10.00.

(b) For educational expenses:

(i) payment for school fees to a secondary school or a private/special school; or

(ii) payment for tuition fees and course fees to a recognized university or tertiary institution.

(2) For the purpose of sub-regulation (1) a claimant for Medical and Educational benefit shall make an application on the approved form and on demand shall furnish the following, where appropriate —

(a) Membership identity card; or

(b) Marriage and/or birth certificate; or

(c) Evidence of adoption.".

4 Amendments to regulation 14A

Regulation 14A of the Regulations is amended as follows:

(a) delete paragraphs (2) and (4) and substitute, respectively, as follows:

"(2) Only members with contribution account balance that exceeds $20,000 are eligible;" and

"(4) A minimum of $5,000 and a maximum of $20,000 housing benefit may be paid to any one member."

(b) add the following new paragraphs immediately after paragraph (8) as additional conditions:

"(9) Members that have, in accordance with section 14B of the Provident Fund (Benefit) (Amendment) Regulations 1999, pledged their provident funds as security to their business or personal loans with the DBT and/or NBT shall not be entitled to withdraw under this benefit if such withdrawal will undermine such security pledge;

(10) Subject to the minimum and maximum amounts in paragraph (4), no member shall be entitle to receive an amount of benefit that has a sum with his loan balance greater than 50% of his total contribution balance;

(11) No member who is unemployed and is over 45 years of age shall be entitled to withdraw under the housing benefit; and

(12) Disbursements of funds withdrawn under this benefit shall be made directly to the supplier of building materials or the contractor. A reasonable amount from the disbursement may be paid directly to the member, provided he requests for financial assistance to cater for other related costs to the construction works."

5 Amendment to regulation 15

Regulation 15 of the Regulations is amended by deleting "or special death benefit".

6 Amendment to Regulation 16

Regulation 16 of the Regulations is amended by deleting "or special death benefit".

7 Amendment to Regulation 18(5)

Regulation 18(5) is repealed in its entirety.