Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room Two, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln LN1 1YL

Contact: Catherine Wilman  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

13.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor M S Jones.

14.

Declarations of Members' Interests

Minutes:

No interests were declared.

15.

Minutes of the previous meeting of the LGPS Local Pension Board held on 7 October 2015 pdf icon PDF 116 KB

Minutes:

The minutes from the previous meeting of the Board were considered and the issue of Annual Benefit Statements was discussed.  It was reported that 95% of statements had been sent out to members by The Pension Regulator's revised deadline of 30 November 2015.  The remaining 5% had unresolved queries on them. 

 

RESOLVED

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 October 2015 be agreed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

16.

Presentation from West Yorkshire Pension Fund on Pensions Administration

Minutes:

The Board welcomed Caroline Blackburn, Technical and Development Manager, and Kaele Pilcher, Pension Fund Representative, both from West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF), who made a presentation on pensions administration.  The issues covered in the presentation were:

 

·         WYPF facts and figures;

·         Membership – WYPF;

·         Membership – Lincolnshire Pension Fund;

·         WYPF activities;

·         Management Structure;

·         About WYPF;

·         Staffing;

·         Staff;

·         Achievements 2015;

·         Achievements 2014;

·         WYPF Activities;

·         Peformance 2014/15;

·         Shared Service;

·         Training;

·         Member Liaison and Employer Liaison;

·         Secure Administration;

·         ISO 9001:2008

·         Quality Policy

·         Monthly Contributions – Pre-April Process;

·         Monthly Returns – Why Change?

 

During the presentation, the following points were noted:

 

·         As at the last valuation, the WYPF was 96% funded;

·         West Yorkshire's Pensions Board had 8 members;

·         A new member of pensions staff had been appointed and would be working from the offices in Lincoln.  Each employer in the scheme was assigned a nominated person within the pension team.  An employer representative on the Board commented that the team members who had dealt with their enquiries had all been very helpful and efficient;

·         WYPF used the Civica UPM computer system and all Lincoln staff had to receive training on it.  All members of the Lincoln team had training plans in place and undertook a weekly phone call to West Yorkshire staff to highlight and resolve any issues;

·         Member liaison was offered where pensions officers would meet with members on a one to one basis to discuss their pension.  Any members with mobility issues would be offered a home visit;

·         The Civica system had a portal for scheme employers to submit returns and change member records;

·         As of May 2015, the ISO 9001:2008 quality management system included the Lincolnshire Pension Fund too;

·         Customer complaints were scrutinised to try to improve 'corrective and preventative actions';

·         Lincolnshire County Council data was not being sent through on time by Serco, however the issue was in hand and being dealt with by making changes to the Agresso/UPM interface;

·         A few hundred new starters and leavers were due to go onto the system and were currently being entered manually;

·         95% of monthly payments from employers had been completed;

·         WYPF were well ahead of their comparable Funds on the introduction of monthly returns;

·         An update on the Service Level Agreement with WYPF had been discussed at Pensions Committee and would be reported on every quarter;

·         Discussion took place regarding the reduction to £40,000 of the annual allowance and how to communicate it.

 

Considering the obstacles and problems WYPF had been faced with, the Board felt that they had handled everything very well.  Officers had also stated that the partnership between LCC and WYPF felt like a partnership now that the initial issues had been resolved.

 

Despite certain teething problems, it was felt that WYPF had been the correct choice for the Council; it was felt they had a resilience to them that would be valuable going forward.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the presentation be noted by the Board.

17.

Work Programme

(An opportunity for the Board to discuss its work programme for forthcoming meetings. Topics previously agreed were: Communications; Internal and External Audit Report; Pensions Administration)

Minutes:

Following a discussion, the following items were agreed for the work programme:

 

·    Communications;

·    Internal and external audit report;

·    Pooling update.

 

RESOLVED

 

That the work programme for future meetings be agreed.

 

 
 
dot

Original Text: