Agenda item

The Finance & Systems Manager (Pensions) presented the budget report. The directly-controlled administrative budget was forecast to be £20,000 below budget because of late appointments of staff in the Benefits and Data Quality teams. Expenditure not directly controlled was forecast to be £960,000 over budget, because of increased investment management fees, reflecting the rise in the markets since the budget was set.

The Pensions Benefits Manager presented the performance report. He invited Members to note the information about the performance of the Pensions team given in section 6 of the report. He circulated an amended version of Annex 2 to Appendix 7 (deferred performance cases within target for the larger employers in the Fund) and drew attention to the great improvement in performance by Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset Councils. However, the performance of Bristol City Council had fallen significantly and they had cleared only 5 cases within target. Training had been provided to some staff of BCC, but they had changed their working practices without notifying the Pensions Team. Training had subsequently been provided to another group of staff.  Electronic transactions had increased by 5.37% to 49%. He asked Members to note the very competitive administration costs of £17.34 per member of the Fund, compared with £21.42 for the average fund and £20.45 for the smaller comparator group.

A Member congratulated the Pensions Team on the increase in the proportion of electronic transactions and asked when it was likely to reach 100%. The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions replied that there was a strategy to increase electronic transactions. Employers were being encouraged to send data electronically, and the larger employers were increasingly doing so, though South Gloucestershire was lagging behind the other Unitary Authorities in the implementation of i-Connect. As part of the strategy employers could be charged more if they did not send data electronically. The Pensions Benefits Manager said that BCC previously had only two officers dealing with leavers. He reminded Members that employers who sent data late could now be charged.

A Member noted that the number of deferred members had doubled and asked about the impact on workload. The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions said that BCC had decided to opt all employees into the Fund under Auto-enrolment requirements. It was critically important that all employers recognised the need to invest in technology and provide information in a timely fashion.

A Member commented that the number of active elected members seemed very low. The Pensions Benefits Manager reminded Members that North Somerset members had elected to withdraw the scheme from its elected Members.

A Member commented that deferred members always accounted for most gaps in member data, because they often moved elsewhere. He said that another pension fund with which he was involved used a volunteer welfare officer to keep track of deferred members, paying the officer only their petrol costs. He thought that this worked quite well.

A Member noted the CIPFA benchmark data given in Appendix 8 and wondered whether benchmark data was available for investment costs. Referring to the risk register in Appendix 9, she said she thought that some risks were quite trivial and that she would like to know the net risk carried by the Fund. The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions responded that benchmark data was constantly being improved and that the Pensions Manager had given a great deal of attention to it.

RESOLVED to note:

1. Administration and management expenditure incurred for 4 months to 31 July 2013;

2. Performance Indicators and Customer Satisfaction feedback for 3 months to 31 July 2013;

3. Summary Performance Report for period from 1 April 2011 to 30 July 2013;

4. Risk Register and 2013 CIPFA Benchmarking Comparators report.