Issue - meetings

39.1     The Committee considered a report by the Chief Finance Officer introduce by Paul Punter, Head of Pensions Administration.

39.2     The following points were highlighted to the Committee:

1)    The performance for quarter 2 showed an improvement from quarter 1 with June showing as the first green rated month and the July and August performance figures also showing improvement.

2)    There will be an influx in administrative tasks following the backdated local government pay award which is likely to affect the performance of the administration team.

3)    There are still some red and amber items in the June performance report at Appendix 3 of the report. These tasks mostly relate to transfers.

4)    The Helpdesk performance has been affected by resourcing however is now rated gold and there has been progress in implementing a digital assistant.

5)    The Annual Benefit Statements were run in August and a review of how the underpin had affected the statements was conducted looking at any underpin greater than £1,000 and greater than 20% change due to the underpin.

6)    Annual Benefit Statements had to include the McCloud data which was broken down into 4 McCloud categories.

7)    For active and deferred, 99.13% of Annual Benefit Statements were issued and the remaining will be issued over the next month.

8)    McCloud Category 3 tells the member that they are in scope however they have not been assessed to determine if their pension is protected by the underpin. There are 400 active members and 233 deferred members in that position. The Pension Board resolved to report this detail as a breach to the Pensions Regulator.

9)    Backdated calculations for deaths and retirements in scope regarding the underpin are being undertaken following training of the team and will be completed by the statutory deadline of 31 August 2026.

10) The Fund onboarded to the Pension Dashboards eco-system on 24 September 2025, well ahead of the LGPS statutory deadline of 31 October 2025.Work is ongoing with Barnett Waddingham to draft communications for all Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC) investors to explain the forthcoming fund changes with effect from 31 October 2025.

39.3     The Committee discussed the ‘chat bot’ digital assistant and the expectations in terms of the support it can provide to members and its anticipated impact on the number of email and phone call enquiries that the Helpdesk receive and respond to.

39.4     The Committee commended the pensions administration team for the work on the Annual Benefit Statements to include the McCloud Remedy recognising the success in terms of issuing 99.13% of Annual Benefit Statements.

39.5     The Committee discussed the administration resource available to mitigate the impact of spikes in administrative tasks and noted that no additional resource is anticipated to be required.

39.6     The Committee RESOLVED to note the report.