Agenda item

Yvonne Thompson-Hoyte, Interim Pensions Fund Manager, presented the report.

With regards to Member Self Service Registration, the Committee heard that there had been an increase in the number of members who had signed up for self-service bringing the total to 7427 - 27% of total membership.

In terms of KPI reporting, it was confirmed that results were disappointing and inconsistent. Page 42 of the agenda pack provided a summary of the cases received along with the percentage processed within the service level agreement (SLA). An additional reporting column had been added to indicate whether late cases had missed the statutory deadline. Members heard that 5 Deferred benefit notification cases had missed the legal deadline; an explanation had been requested.

With regards to staffing and resources, all staff had returned to working from home in line with Government advice. It was reported that all annual allowance letters had been issued by the 6 April deadline; however, 8 of the 22 letters had been issued late by 2 to 7 days.

The Committee was informed that the annual address tracing project had commenced in January 2021 and was due to be completed in March 2021. The GMP Reconciliation project had previously been suspended while HMRC data was awaited. Said data had subsequently been received and Mercer had now completed the final analysis report. The rectification stage had now been reached.

Members heard that all public sector schemes were required to carry out analysis on members’ records between 2012 and 2014 to determine whether they were entitled to rectification under the McCloud ruling. SCC were in the process of considering how to carry out this project – whether to carry out the analysis themselves or whether to use a third party to do the work.

Members enquired whether there were any other ongoing projects at present. It was confirmed that a backlog project was underway; about 1500 cases had been identified as ready to be processed.

In response to the Committee’s concerns regarding ongoing issues with Surrey, it was confirmed that there was a need to manage the contract very tightly over the next few months. It was acknowledged that it would be difficult to keep Surrey engaged until the end of the contract, but this would be managed in the best way possible. With regards to McCloud, Members heard that the contract would be with Hampshire by the time of implementation as it was expected that the McCloud project would take a few years to conclude. It was likely that the project would start with Surrey then move to Hampshire and it was vital that the transition period was not unseated at this stage. A data collection template had been agreed. Members heard that Surrey would decide whether to deal with McCloud themselves or whether to outsource the work; they would approach LBH with a proposal and a decision would be made at that point as to whether to accept it.

With regard to breaches, the Committee was advised that a breaches log was kept and was presented to the Pensions Board. It was agreed that, in future, the Pensions Committee would also be appraised of breaches and any action taken to address them.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Pensions Committee noted the administration report; and

2.    In future, the Pensions Committee be appraised of breaches and action taken to address them.