Agenda item

27.1     The Board considered a report providing an update on matters relating to Pensions Administration activities for the period October 2021 to September 2022.

27.2     Paul Punter (PP) drew the Board’s attention to the PAT performance numbers in appendix 1, during quarter two 2022, average at 97.91% which were like the previous quarter. However, quarter three 2022, average fell to 94.28% with a low of 90.16% in September. This drop in performance reflected the need for significant team resources to be diverted to projects, senior staff taking time to undertake recruitment interviews, while also being peak holiday season. PP was pleased to state the October performance was back above 95%

27.3     PP highlighted that from August 22 the refunds task KPI in appendix 1 includes frozen refunds – those who chose not to take the money back immediately as they may later want to transfer the value into another public sector pension arrangement. PAT process about 100 frozen refunds a month and these are considered a lower priority and as such has not scored well, adding to the recent lower performance.

27.4     RM recalled from previous Admin Working Group meetings that there was a back log of frozen refund cases to clear.

27.5     PP confirmed that there are approx. 5,000 frozen refund cases on Altair but they can only be processed after five years. PP anticipated with both the addition of new recruits and the improved visibility of the tasks that the performance numbers will improve.

27.6     RM asked when a report can be expected which benchmarks the funds targets against other similar funds as it would be difficult to support any KPI changes in the absence of reviewing comparative data.

27.7     PP confirmed that the issue had been raised with the Senior Area Pension Officer Group and there is some agreement to share targets. Officers can produce some retrospective information. The aim is to produce a paper on any proposed changes to KPI targets for the February meeting as part of the update to the Pensions Administration Strategy.

27.8     PP then turned to appendix 2 and provided an update on the Helpdesk performance. It was noted with effect from 25 November 2022 Surrey are taking their Pensions Helpdesk in-house. Currently ESPF is happy with the helpdesk performance so are not looking to immediately follow suit but will review available options in the Summer 2023.

27.9     PP provided a project update:
- The Annual Benefits Statements for 2022 results would have been reported in September following the 31 August statutory deadline. The results were slightly better than the previous year with 99.79% of deferreds receiving an ABS and 96.72% of actives (excluding the one employer for whom there are data issues).- Both the historical and the 2021/22 Annual Allowance projects will be concluded soon with only a handful of cases outstanding (plus actives for one employer). - Mortality: monthly checks of UK pensioners data reviewed through ITM since June 22, a tiny number of cases found through the historical review. This was reassuring and confirmed the ways of identifying and reporting deaths in a timely way is working. An overseas mortality project for the 500+ pensioners commenced in October 22. The documents for completion was sent by email to about 80% any many responses have already been received.
- Address Tracing Exercise –the “gone away” addresses will be reviewed every two years. In October we provided our existing deferred members data to ITM for review against various credit reference agencies. The initial results saw 83% of our 24,501 deferred’s traced to an address. The remainder will move on to a full trace (deeper dive).   

27.10   NS asked what the implication was for delays to the GMP rectification project.

27.11   PP confirmed that the risk is that larger overpayments may need to be written off but of very small numbers (well under 1% of pensioner liabilities) and the impact on most pensioners was likely to be within £100 a year.

27.12   Tom Druitt (TD) asked if it was possible to have more detail on the call answer time and noted that the abandoned call rate for main help line seems to fluctuate, it increased this year despite achieving 0 last year.

27.13   PP confirmed that there is a very ambitious target for call rate (75% in 20 seconds) and the service does increase resources when significant communications like the ABS are issued in order to respond to queries but it is a challenge to get the correct balance. The call abandonment time (how long members are prepared to wait in busy times) has fallen on average from around 6 minutes to around 2 minutes.

27.14   The Board wished Julie Pelham good luck in her nomination of Team Leader of the Year at the Professional Pensions - Women in Pensions 2022 Awards tonight. (Subsequent to the meeting Board members were circulated with the news that Julie won the award).

27.15   The Board RESOLVED to note the report