Issue - meetings

The Board are invited to review the latest Administration Report as presented to the Pension Fund Committee on 11 September 2020, including the latest performance statistics for the Service, and to offer any comments to the Pension Fund Committee.

The Board were invited to review the latest Administration Report as presented to the Pension Fund Committee on 11 September 2020, including the latest performance statistics for the Service, and to offer any comments to the Pension Fund Committee.

During discussion Sean responded to individual questions on staffing, complaints, projects, member self service, employers and annual benefit statements. The Board expressed their pleasure that all outstanding issues  had been resolve4d with Edwards and Ward.

Under the section on government announcements Sean updated members on the position on the exit cap. It was noted that guidance was awaited and that it impacted on organisations part way through restructure. They were receiving enquiries but the exact position was unclear. The changes did not apply to all employers in the LGPS.

11:50

This report updates the Committee on the key administration issues including the iConnect project, service performance measurement and any write offs agreed in the last quarter.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)       note this report;

(b)        agree to delegate the preparation of a response on the consultation of changes to the Fire Service Pension Scheme to the Director of Finance following consultation with the Fire Service Pension Board, and

(c)       agree the response to the consultation on the extension of the Statutory Underpin in the LPGP as set out in Annex 2, amended as appropriate.

Recommendations Agreed.

Note:  The Committee thanked staff for their hard work and efforts towards end of year.

The Committee considered a report (PF11) which gave an update on the latest position on administration issues and which requested determination on a number of issues as set out in the report, the resolutions for which are set out below.

Mrs Fox reported that at present the team was carrying vacancies for 2 senior administrators; 4.50 administrators and 2 administrative assistants.  An additional senior administrator vacancy had been created by the secondment of a member of staff who would be covering the current team leader’s maternity leave which started at the beginning of October. The senior administrator vacancies were not filled internally so those jobs would need to be advertised externally.  The administrator posts had been advertised externally with over 200 responses received. Following an arduous selection process 4 candidates had been appointed and would be joining the team shortly.

Both administrative assistant roles were out to advert, and it was hoped that appointments would follow shortly.  With such a high level of new recruits, team leaders were now setting out a training plan for our new entrants whilst maintaining the through put of work for the overall team. The employer team would be moving to their new operating structure so that team members would deal with a specific group of scheme employers for all contact with the Fund.

In relation to data, Mrs Fox referring to the addenda, reported thatScheme employers were required to submit both data and contribution payments by 19^th of month following payroll. Data returns were currently being made either via MARS or i-connect.  Late MARS returns had been recorded for six scheme employers in April and May; 3 scheme employers in June and 2 scheme employers in July. All returns were chased and subsequently received, so no fines had been issued. The data for the i-connect returns was not so clear cut given that employers were moving across to the new system and where payroll changes were taking place returns had been delayed, at our request, whilst member records were moved and data was locked down so that it cannot be overwritten. Where necessary chases for data returns had been made.  A new system report would enable better monitoring of the incoming returns.

As identified by the Pension Board’s review of the Pension Regulator’s Code of Practice 14, the performance reporting should include a regular review of the receipt of pension contributions from scheme employers and members.  This report had been developed and was provided as an addendum to the report. The address tracing exercise was now underway. A system report was due to be run shortly for review following end of year process, so that overall data quality scores can be checked ahead of the annual submission to The Pension Regulator.

The Chairman asked Mrs Fox to pass on the Committee’s thanked for all their efforts on completing end of year.

Complaints remained low and were all around ill health retirement. 

Administration to Pay project was due to be completed in December  ...  view the full minutes text for item 115