Agenda item

The Finance & Systems Manager (Pensions) presented the finance report. He said that since the circulation of the report an error had been discovered. The budget figure for compliance costs recharged should have been (£120,000) instead of (£52,000). The overspend was therefore reduced from £246,260 to £178,260.

The Pensions Manager presented the Performance Indicators. He apologised that no figures were available on performance against target for this period as the tool used to extract this information needed some work following the move from AXIS to Altair software so replacements for two pages in the appendix had been circulated to Members after the agenda had been issued. Work outstanding was well within the 10% target. Information about members opting out of the Fund, requested by the Committee at its previous meeting, had been included in appendices 5, 6 and 7 of the report. Appendix 7 showed that 80% of the staff of large employers were members of the Fund, which is a higher proportion than a few years ago.

A Member requested a comment on the trend line of graph 7 on page 281 of the agenda, which showed an increase in outstanding workload. The Pensions Manager conceded that the graph did show marginal increase, but emphasised that even though workload varied considerably from month to month, outstanding work remained within the 10% target. The Member asked whether he was confident that it would remain within the target, given that there were still vacancies for administration staff. The Pensions Manager said there were several issues affecting recruitment and retention. A small amount of overtime working had been necessary. The aim was to return to full complement.

The Pensions Manager reported that the issue of Annual Benefit Statements to Fund members would begin in October. In response to a question from the Chair he said that figures for eligible staff who were members of the Fund contained in appendix 7 would be the benchmark for future reports. The Pensions Team had put information on the Fund’s website to warn members against making rash decisions to leave the Fund before the government announced its specific proposals for change.

RESOLVED to note the administration and management expenses incurred for the year to 31 August 2011 and Performance Indicators for the 3 months to 31 July 2011.