Agenda item

The Finance & Systems Manager (Pensions) presented the financial report. The forecast for the year to 31 March 2013 was for net expenditure to be £107,000 under budget. This was largely because of reduced expenditure on salaries due to delayed appointments.

Avon Pension Fund (“APF”) Performance

The Pensions Manager presented the administration report. In the quarter to December 31^st 2012 more cases than received in the period were cleared and an additional 703 old cases were also cleared, giving a performance figure against the target of 113%.The four new benefits staff who had been recruited last year had completed their learning curve and were now having an impact on improving performance.

Opt Outs

Figures for opt-outs were extremely encouraging; only 46 staff with more than 4 months service had decided to opt out of the Scheme, which represented a mere  0.2% of the total Fund membership.

A Member asked why the graph on agenda page 181 showed peaks in two months. The Pensions Manager replied that this might be connected with large numbers joining the education sector in September, or, given that the second peak seemed to be in Novembers, might be because employers had been late submitting data.

A Member commented that the Balanced Scorecard had been first introduced several years ago and that gradually more and more information had been added to it, which made it quite difficult to interpret now. She suggested it might be rationalised and simplified. The Pensions Manager agreed to review it.

Employer Performance

Employers’ performance providing information about retirees (agenda page 183) had improved, which was quite encouraging, though there was still room for further improvement. Performance with deferred cases (agenda page 185) was a different story, though not so bad as appeared at first sight, because, as explained in the report, once older backlog cases had been cleared the performance figures in this area should improve. There were almost no instances of late payment of contributions. The introduction of i-Connect software should lead to improved performance. In future notification of staff changes by employers would only be accepted electronically, and those continuing to send paper would be charged an additional administration charge; it was hoped that being aware of this would be enough to encourage their improved performance.

New additional charges for employer non-compliance in meeting SLA agreed performance targets on submission of member data changes

The Pensions Manager said that the approval of the Committee was sought to the principle of charging employers who fail to send information on member data changes on time (as specified in the Service Level Agreements) additional administration charges and for the scale of charges contained in Appendix 8. The Chair asked how the Committee could decide whether the level of charges was reasonable. The Pensions Manager replied that the level of charges was in line with that adopted by other pension funds around the country.

The Pensions Manager drew attention to the information on i-Connect and Employer Self-Service given in section 9 of the report. i-Connect allows employers to monitor their payroll on a monthly basis, identify staff who qualify for auto-enrolment and provide monthly updates to the Fund. The four unitaries, who were by far the largest employers in the Fund, signed contracts to take i-Connect last December. Other Fund employers might adopt i-Connect. i-Connect did not cover leavers. All employers had Employer Self-Service and could notify changes on-line.

Cyprus situation

The Pensions Manager reported that some pension funds and also DWP (UK State Pension) had suspended payments to banks in Cyprus. There were pensioners of the Fund resident in Cyprus, about half of whom had bank accounts in the UK.  The Fund also decided to stop payments for the time being. However, it had made contact with 2 of its pensioners in Cyprus to establish if it might cause them financial hardship if they did not receive their pension payments in Cyprus. They had asked them to get in touch about their situation. Members congratulated the Pensions Manager for this proactive approach.

RESOLVED

1. To note administration and management expenditure incurred for 10 months to 31/01/2013.

2. To note performance indicators and customer satisfaction feedback for 3 months to 31/01/13.

3. To note the Summary Performance Report for period from 1/04/2012 to 31/01/2013.

4. To APPROVE the Schedule of Additional Charges for employer non-compliance in meeting SLA agreed performance targets on submission of member data and the application of these charges.