Agenda item

The Pensions Manager presented the report.

A Member said it was good to see progress with IConnect, which was really making a difference to performance.

A Member said that he was very pleased to see by how much performance had improved since the Board began reviewing it.  The reports were now very comprehensive, and he was confident as a Board Member that compliance was being taken seriously. He was, however, concerned by the performance of Bristol City Council. The Pensions Manager stated that the particular performance issue was related to a third-party payroll provider. Nonetheless as employer they retained the responsibility for compliance. The Chair wondered whether they should be reported to TPR. The Pensions Manager felt this would not be appropriate at this stage, because the data they provided was of good quality; it was a question of the timeliness of their data provision. A Member asked whether there were any plans to roll out IConnect to third parties. The Pensions Manager said this was not straightforward, and would have to be carefully considered. Payroll providers were not part of the Fund and employers frequently changed them. The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions said that Multi-Academy Trusts were required to harmonise their payroll arrangements.

The Chair noted there was good progress on tracing missing addresses and that the Fund had sufficient resources for this project. He suggested that priority should be given to missing members over 55, as they have a statutory right to withdraw their money from the Fund. He also noted that the legal position that pension overpayments should be reclaimed, though he acknowledged this was challenging from a pragmatic point of view.

The Chair thanked officers for the quality of information provided to the Board and the improvements in performance.

RESOLVED to note:

1. Membership data, Fund and Employer performance for the 3 months to 30th September 2018;

2. Progress and reviews of the TPR Data Improvement Plan.