Agenda item

To be presented by Sam Price, Assistant Pensions Administration Manager, Buckinghamshire Council.

S Price, Assistant Pensions Administration Manager gave an overview of the report circulated with the agenda.

The following points were highlighted:

• There was a high number of communications received by the team in January and February across all mediums. The extra column on the table for communication received shows the figures from the previous board report.
• There was a particular increase in post received for January and February which was a result of the My Pension Online communications sent out. The quantity of post should reduce in the upcoming months.
•  There was a decrease of 1000 queries to the pensions inbox as a result of the largest fund employer moving onto i-Connect. Data is transferred directly from the fund employer to the Council’s system and queries would reduce further when all employers are using i-Connect. The documentation received into I-Connect would be presented on charts at future meetings.
• The reduction in queries allowed pension assistant to focus on other tasks. Sub-teams were able to process incoming communications quickly. There was a phone call queue time of 21 seconds which has improved year on year.
• The benefit administration priority areas include next of kin, death benefits, refunds and payments at retirement age. Most areas were 98% achieved and any lower performing areas were prioritised.
• Transfers of pension benefit performed at 74% this was due to an update in regulations and guidance resulting in more stringent checks for transfers. Due to pension scams there was additional work undertaken to ensure any transfers out were not related to scams. Whilst the guidance and regulations were being reviewed transfers were put on hold. The number of transfers would increase going forward and performance is expected to increase too.
• The payroll statistics for January and February were positive.
•  At the end of February there were 2530 open cases, 47% were overdue and of those 67% were unable to be actioned as the team were waiting on additional information from members or scheme employers. This was an area of priority for the team to reduce.
• Open cases were being reviewed on a monthly basis, for February leavers and retirements were the largest areas for open cases. It was noted these figures should improve once the last two scheme providers join I-Connect as there wouldn’t be leaver information notifications.
• Data improvement was an annual exercise via a report from Heywood. The new reporting tool Insights means data is instant and data can be reviewed as part of the administration teams daily tasks. There was a data score accuracy of 96% for common data. The 4% improvement relates to address information for deferred scheme members which are not currently held. The Council was working with a tracing company to source this information for over 55 year olds and missing addresses were provided on a weekly basis.

The Chairman queried if more in-depth information could be provided on overdue cases and could the data pin point the employer who is not providing information. It was advised the reporting tool could drill down into cases and provide further information.

There was a query relating to data integrity and accuracy. It was noted that schemes missing data such as pensions increase or date of leaving were being populated by the team. There was a reliance on employers to provide accurate common data such as names and addresses. If there were missing dates on scheme information the GMP exercise allowed HMRC to provide this information. It was advised before payments out were made documents such as passports or p45s with NI numbers were checked. In addition, members were reminded to check their records online to ensure they were up to date.

RESOLVED Members of the Board NOTED the update