Agenda item

The Investments Manager presented the budget report. Directly-controlled expenditure was £226,000 below budget because of staff secondments. Increased use of electronic communications had resulted in lower communication costs. The investment budget is not directly-controlled, but is risk-based. There was a forecast overspend of £230,000 on this budget because of increased costs from the re-tendering of the DGF mandate, and managers’ fees had been higher than forecast because of strong market performance. She drew attention to the cash flow forecast in Appendix 2 and explained that cash flow was forecast on a monthly basis.

The Pensions Benefits Manager presented the performance report. He said that all reporting areas were within the targets set under the previous pensions’ administration strategy, which had effect until 31^st May 2015, with the exception of electronic service delivery to members, which would be given special attention under the Fund’s IT strategy. The new pensions’ administration strategy, approved by the Committee at the meeting of 27 March 2015, had come into effect on 1^st June following consultation with employers. There had been an increase in cases, mainly generated by the end-of-year data-cleansing exercise and a rise in the number of estimate requests from members. The programme of work for full digitalisation of administration and communication had already commenced, including redevelopment of internal work flow and reporting modules across Pensions’ Benefits and Payroll. Reports and plans had been put in place to achieve compliance with the requirements of The Pensions Regulator and with the work of the Pensions Board.

A Member asked about performance for transfers out. The Pensions Benefits Manager replied that an extra step had been put into the process to provide protection against pension scams. A new suite of reports was being developed and this area should probably have been given an “amber” rather than a “green” rating.

In reply to a question from a Member the Pensions Benefits Manager said that providing estimates could be very time-consuming. On one occasion a member had requested a total of sixteen estimates, reflecting the projection of different hours of work until retirement. At present staff felt they were obliged to provide estimates to members who requested them, but it was felt that the administration strategy needed to be amended so that staff who were within five years of the statutory retirement age were entitled to an estimate, but younger staff would have to use the self-service facility on the web site.

RESOLVED to note:

1. Administration and management expenditure incurred for 12 months to 31 March 2015.

2. Performance Indicators & Customer Satisfaction feedback for 3 months to 31 March 2015.

3. Summary Performance Report for period from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2015.

4. The Risk Register.