Meeting documents

To consider Item 9

The Lead Member for Human Resources and Equality and Diversity advised Members that this report provided an update on the various pension related activities currently being managed by the Authority and the impact for the Service.

The Human Resources Development Manager advised Members that this report followed the last pension update presented to the Executive Committee on 18 November 2015. The Authority continued to be subject to five different pension schemes, which were split between two Pension Administrators, the West Yorkshire Pension Fund and Buckinghamshire County Council. 

The Human Resources Development Manager advised Members of a few other points of note:

• The Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) Ombudsman Case was concluded in December 2015 with Buckinghamshire County Council, who were the administrators for the Authority at the time, making payments to the affected individuals, well ahead of the scheduled date of April 2016. The funding was made available by DCLG to the Authority to enable it to make the necessary payments to affected individuals;

• in collaboration with Royal Berkshire Fire Authority and following a joint tender process, West Yorkshire Pension Fund was awarded the pension administration contract in December 2015. Following the award, work started to seamlessly transfer the pension administration from Buckinghamshire County Council for a ‘go live’ date of 1 April 2016. The project completed on time with no major issues or additional expenditure;

• the Authority had used internal audit as a ‘critical friend’ to support the transition to the new pension administrator, providing an evaluation of the adequacy and effectiveness of the transfer arrangements and governance. The audit review found the governance arrangements to be robust, with the transfer run as a project with all expected documentation in place;

• all LGPS members received their Annual Benefit statements in July 2016. Due to issues with West Yorkshire Pension Fund’s software provider there was a slight delay with the issuing of statements to firefighters. West Yorkshire Pension Fund had notified the pension regulator and the Authority had advised staff of this delay;

• West Yorkshire Pension Fund would complete the guaranteed minimum pension reconciliation exercise on behalf of the Authority. This was a lengthy project with a number of key steps, with all data required to be reconciled by December 2018;

• the Local Pension Board had been established since July 2015 and quarterly meetings continued to be held. The Authority had recently recruited a third scheme member representative after one board member had resigned from their post. The Scheme Advisory Board had now been established and would provide support and advice to the local pension boards;

• the training school and turntable ladder allowances were now pensionable and the Authority continued to progress the historical impact on this amendment;

• the Authority had a position on the pension discretions that were required to be in place and was working with Royal Berkshire Fire Authority for a position on the remaining 49 discretions for the 2015 firefighter pension scheme;

• the Authority’s re-enrolment date was later this year and the Authority was working with Buckinghamshire Country Council and West Yorkshire Pension Fund on completing this piece of work.

The Chairman thanked the Human Resources Development Manager for the clarity of the report.

RESOLVED –

That the update on pension matters within the Authority be noted.