Agenda item

This report (LPB6) is the latest in the series of reports to the Pension Fund Committee and this Board on the Fund’s approach to employer management. It covers the latest position in respect of our regulatory requirement to issue annual benefit statements to all active and deferred scheme members by 31 August 2017, the plan to issue the outstanding statements, and the key learning points and actions going forward.

The Board is invited to note the latest position on employer management and the proposed actions to address the issues, and to offer any comments to the Pension Fund Committee.

The Board had before them the Employer Management report (LPB6) which was the latest in a series of reports to the Pension Fund Committee and this Board on the Fund’s approach to employer management. It covered the latest position in respect of Oxfordshire’s regulatory requirement to issue annual benefit statements to all active and deferred scheme members by 31 August 2017; the plan to issue the outstanding statements; and the key learning points and actions going forward.

The Board was invited to note the latest position and the proposed actions to address the issues; and also to offer any comments to the Pension Fund Committee.

During the general discussion, the Board established the following:

·       The Pensions Team were still short of three members of staff. Training of new members of staff impacted on performance;

·       The Diocese had successfully completed a test run on their computer system, with direct assistance from Sally Fox. This had necessitated an £44k input in software development;

·       UNISON reiterated their offer of assistance with liaison between employees who had not yet received their Annual Benefit Statements and with the poorer performing employers. David Locke also offered to broker a meeting if needed;

·       Employers had been asked to give any issues which they wished to have discussed at the quarterly Employers Group meeting;

·       The Pensions Team was pushing to correct any system errors earlier so that iconnect, when introduced, could assist with establishing, on a monthly basis, what was outstanding thus allowing issues to be resolved earlier and in advance of the following month’s return;

·       The Pensions Team were now meeting with the Chief Executives/Chief Finance Officers of Employer organisations to discuss any issues or action that needed to be taken;

·       The organisations in the Employers Group who were not engaging were very resource intensive for the Pensions Team;

·       A number of authorities had sent their benefit statements out on time but this had been achieved by the use of additional staff and overtime and leave embargos. It was also clear that a number operated less stringent checks on the data included in published statements and did not report performance across the complete pool of active members, so boosting the percentage of statements issued. The matter was on the Agenda for the new Southern Area Pension Group to review;

·       Introducing a standard approach to employer returns was restricted because both nationally and locally Pension Funds and Scheme employers were required to set discretionary policies under the Regulations which resulted in different requirements.

At the conclusion of the discussion, the Board AGREED noted the current position andto inform Pension Fund Committee:

(a)  that the Board welcomed the potential actions to discuss with employers as set out at paragraph 9 of the report;

(b)  that the Board welcomed the positive feedback on interventions made by the Team to encourage better returns from employers; and

(c)  to acknowledge that the Pensions Team required time to plan new projects which would require a number of pieces of work for submission to the Board and to Committee.