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LOCAL AUTHORITIES' SECTION • 12. All Hospital Boards and other local authorities must contribute to the Fund on behalf of such of their employees who elect to become contributing employees. A contributing employee may elect at any time to give six months' notice of his intention to cease contributing. The principal benefit is a pension, based on length of service and final salary, granted on retirement through ill health or after attainment of a specified age or after completion of a specified period of service. Several changes were made in the scheme in 1947, the benefits now being as set out in Table II of the Appendix. 13. The contributions the Fund receives under the 1947 Standard Scheme are : {a) Each employee contributes a percentage of his salary in accordance with his age when he enters the Fund, as follows Age at Entry. Percentage of Salary,. Not over 30 .. .. .. .. 5 Not over 35 .. .. .. .. 6 Not over 40 .. .. .. .. 7 Not over 45 .. .. .. .. 8 Not over 50 .. .. .. .. 9 Over 50 .. .. .. .. .. 10 (6) His employer contributes a like amount. (c) Contributions by both employee and employer attract a 25-per-cent. subsidy from the State. 14. The terms and conditions of the 1947 Standard Scheme apply to all entrants after that scheme was adopted ; existing contributors were given the option of remaining under the old conditions (which are set out in the report of the 1942 valuation) or of coming under the 1947 Standard Scheme. At the valuation date the process of changing to the 1947 Standard Scheme was not complete, so that it was not known which employees would elect to remain under the old conditions. As the liability of the Fund in respect of any employee is greater on the average under the 1947 Standard Scheme than under the old conditions, it has been assumed that all employees will eventually come under the 1947 Standard Scheme. 15. At the valuation date the benefit payable to the widow of a contributing employee was £52 per annum ; in 1948 this was increased to £lO4 per annum. Considerable liability attaches to this increase in benefit, and it was thought advisable to bring the increased liability into account in the valuation by valuing both existing and prospective widows' pensions at the rate of £lO4 per annum. At the valuation date contributions were being made to the Fund on account of 5,400 male and 4,669 female employees in receipt of annual salaries amounting to £3,317,728. Pensions amounting to £142,048 were payable to 685 male and 286 female retired employees, and 289 widows and 121 children were in receipt of allowances amounting to £18,129 per annum. The total contributions payable, excluding the State subsidy r , amounted to £368,890 per annum.

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