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Report to: |
Pension Board |
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Date of meeting: |
2 November 2023 |
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By: |
Chief Finance Officer |
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Title: |
Pension Administration - updates |
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Purpose: |
To provide an update to the Pension Board on matters relating to Pensions Administration activities.
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RECOMMENDATION The Board is
recommended to note the updates and make any comments for feedback
to the Pension Committee. |
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1. Background
1.1 The in-house Pensions Administration Team (PAT) carries out the operational, day-to-day tasks on behalf of the members and employers of the East Sussex Pension Fund (the Fund, ESPF) and for the Administering Authority. They also lead on topical administration activities, projects and improvements that may have an impact on members of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
2. Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
2.1 The Performance Report, for the period October 2022
to September 2023 can be found at Appendix 1. The PAT
saw performance numbers during quarter three 2023, average at
88.08% (volume completed 3,854) which were, as predicted, lower to
the previous quarter (94.67% with a volume of
3,515).
The lower than normal performance was caused by a number of
issues:
· A knock-on result of the impact of completing the large volumes of BHCC 2021/22 member movements in the quarter.
· A backlog of transfers was also created by the Government Actuaries Department (GAD) freeze due to the Actuarial Factors review.
· Focus on i-Connect onboarding leading to production of Annual Benefit Statements
· Data cleansing
· Printing and Postage services transfer to the postal hub
· Development of the next day transfer task
·
Some PAT resources had
been redirected to focus on completing projects such as the
historical Annual Allowance, Deferred member address tracing &
mortality exercise, plus the process reviews &
robotics.
Looking at the position in early October, it is expected that performance will remain lower than expected for the next few months.
2.2
The Fund has a gold standard service provision for the Pensions
Helpdesk and the results are included in Appendix 2. The
Helpdesk is currently supported by Surrey County Council, however
this service will cease in March 2024. The ESPF Pensions Helpdesk
service will be brought in-house on 1 April 2024. A project is
underway to ensure a smooth transfer for this service, with staff
TUPE transferring to ESCC, where applicable.
3. Pension Administration Staffing Update
3.1 The Fund is currently completing the pre-employment checks for two new Pension Administration Apprentices. A short-term temporary position is being put in place to support the backlog. One permanent Pension Administrator position vacancy remains, which is not currently being recruited to.
4. Projects update
4.1 Annual Benefits
Statements – 2023
The final results as at 31 August
2023 were provided verbally at the last Board meeting and
circulated shortly afterwards. In summary these were:
|
Total No. produced |
No address |
Deferred post 31/3 |
Errors & Issues |
% issued |
||
|
2022 Deferred |
30,694 |
1,796 |
392 |
66 |
99.79 |
|
|
2023 Deferred |
31,808 |
1,731 |
263 |
78 |
99.76 |
|
|
Year/Status |
Total No. produced |
Queries outstanding |
% issued |
|
|
2022 Active |
15,223 |
517 |
96.7 excluding BHCC |
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|
2023 Active |
22,609 |
957 |
95.9 including BHCC* |
|
*
circa 800 records retained by BHCC being investigated
Some resulting queries remain outstanding; the Fund are making good
progress with the production of the ABS beyond the statutory date
with the outstanding 957 queries down to 545 as at 30 September
2023. The records retained by BHCC cover a range of statuses; data
for 167 active members was provided in early October 23.
4.2 Guaranteed Minimum Pension – Reconciliation & Rectification
The
data was provided to Mercers to recommence the project in May 2023
and their project plan provided on 18 September 2023 suggests it
should be completed by February 2024.
There are a number of key decisions being considered, initially by
the Admin Working Group, on 26 October 2023 to enable the project
to start to rectify and update records to close the
project.
4.3 Annual Allowance (AA) 2022/23
The
statutory deadline from the production of Pension Saving statements
was 6 October 2023. This is the first year in three that the Fund
had the opportunity to complete the project in a timely
manner. The Fund
identified 116 members as in scope for a detailed review,
calculation and possibly a letter if over the £40k, whether or
not if tax is due. The number was lower than usual as the
Government elected to exclude the 10.1% CPI increase this
year.
All calculations were completed, and letters issued where appropriate except for:
(a) 2 complex cases with club tv-in’s that require bespoke letters.
(b) 5 members where we have not received the data from the employers.
4.4
Member Self Service
(MSS)
MSS is a portal
used by members to help members keep track of their ESPF pension.
Members can view ABS, update personal info, update nomination
forms, and use a range of benefit projectors. The portal is being
replaced with an improved portal called Transformational Member
Experience (TME). Officers had a pre meeting with Heywood, the
software provider, on 26 September 2023 to discuss:
· A run through / short demo of TME
· Branding, style & images/icons
· A proposed plan including timescale – test system by Jan 2024 and live system by March 2024
· System parity (by June 24)
· What is needed from the Customer – PID, implementation & technical study
· Communication plans
· Roll-out by phasing
· Training
· Next steps / timings
4.5 Additional
Contributions
A report is due to Board and Committee on money purchase or defined contribution Prudential AVC arrangements. At the previous meeting the Chair requested some data in respect of the alternative options available within the scheme.
The following table shows the number of contracts that have been created by members:
|
Type of top-up contribution |
Period available |
Numbers |
|
Added Years |
1975 – 2008 |
1,190 |
|
Additional Retirement Contributions |
2008 - 2014 |
197 |
|
Additional Pension Contributions |
2014 to present |
391 |
|
Additional Voluntary Contributions |
|
6,052 |
Note: Members will only appear once in each row (using the earliest start date) but could have multiple types of contracts therefore appear in more than one row. Therefore, it is not 7,830 members who at some point in time have topped up their benefits. These numbers also pick up members whether they have topped up as either a one-off or regular contribution.
4.6 50/50 section membership
The
scheme changed in 2014 from a final salary scheme to a career
average revalued earnings (CARE) scheme. For each year in the CARE
scheme, members will accrue a 1/49th of their
pensionable pay. This is then revalued each subsequent year in line
with inflation. One of the benefit design changes introduced by the
LGPS at that time was the introduction of the 50/50 section. This
allowed and encouraged any existing or new members in short term
financial hardship to be in the scheme by paying 50% less in
contributions resulting in an accrual rate of 1/98th for
the pension during the period in this section. Each time an
employer is on their triennial auto-enrolment date these members
will be put back into the main section. This does not stop them
opting to revert back to the 50/50 section. The section has also
used by some senior officers to lessen the impact of the Life Time
Allowance. Whilst in the 50/50 section the employer still pays the
full contribution and the member would still receive full death in
service and incapacity retirement cover. The numbers who have used
this category are as follows:
|
Year Election made |
Number of members |
|
2014 |
40 |
|
2015 |
43 |
|
2016 |
58 |
|
2017 |
91 |
|
2018 |
85 |
|
2019 |
92 |
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2020 |
48 |
|
2021 |
73 |
|
2022 |
94 |
|
2023 |
32 |
Note: There have been 656 opt outs of the main section into the 50/50 section, but some will be multiple re-entries. The are currently 217 members in the 50/50 section.
5 Conclusion and reasons for recommendation
5.1
The Pension Board is asked to note the report and make any comments
for feedback to the Pension Committee.
IAN
GUTSELL
Chief Finance Officer
Contact Officer:
Paul Punter, Head of Pensions Administration
Email:
paul.punter@eastsussex.gov.uk