Issue - meetings

12:00

This report (PF12) details the provisional outcome of the scheme's GMP reconciliation exercise and seeks members views on what parameters should be applied to the final run.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to confirm:

a)         That no trivial threshold amount should be applied to any identified member records;

b)         That any underpayments identified should be paid to members as soon as possible on receipt of a final report from ITM, and interest paid in line with LGPS Regulations;

c)         There should be no recovery of any historic overpaid pension identified by this exercise, and that members should be given 3 months written notice before any reduction identified by this exercise is applied to their pension in payment.

Recommendations Agreed.

The Committee had before it a report (PF12) which provided details of the provisional outcome of the scheme's GMP reconciliation exercise and sought members views on what parameters should be applied to the final run.

ITM Limited had been undertaking this exercise on behalf of the Oxfordshire Pension Fund.  Following corrections to HMRC records identified as incorrect, ITM received the final data cut from HMRC in May and had produced a provisional results report for both LGPS and Fire Pension Scheme.  Mrs Foxx presented the reports to the Committee and sought agreement to support the decisions required on the way forward.  Unfortunately, a number of discrepancies have been identified in the reports, and ITM have been asked to undertake further work to correct these and submit revised reports. The discrepancies were set out in the report circulated to all members of the Committee.

Mrs Fox drew the Committee’s attention to the revised recommendation set out in the Addenda in relation to thresholds.  She reported that should the Committee agree to the recommendations today, the changes would be made and then they would give members 3 months grace to get used to any adjustments in their monthly payments.

Councillor Lygo questioned whether the period of 3 months was a legal period.  Mrs Fox replied that the 3 months was seen as a reasonable period to alleviate any financial hardships the changes could impose.  Mr Collins added that the 3 months also took people to the other side of Christmas.

Councillor Thompson questioned whether there was any yearly or monthly data on how much the over-payments per person were.  Mrs Fox reported that they did not yet have that break down in information, only headline figures.  More detail would follow shortly.

The CommitteeRESOLVED to confirm:

a)         that no trivial threshold amount should be applied to any identified member records;

b)         that any underpayments identified should be paid to members as soon as possible on receipt of a final report from ITM, and interest paid in line with LGPS Regulations;

c)          there should be no recovery of any historic overpaid pension identified by this exercise, and that members should be given 3 months written notice before any reduction identified by this exercise is applied to their pension in payment.