Issue - meetings

The Board were reminded that administration of the Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Pension schemes had been transferred to the West Yorkshire Pension fund, and this had taken effect from April 1. The Board welcomed Helen Scargill and Matthew Mott from the West Yorkshire Pension fund to explain more. There had been a couple of minor issues and queries to resolve when the transfer was initially made, but nothing of any major significance.

The Board were informed that West Yorkshire would now be in a position to provide monthly client reports, and the first of these was due to be received the following week. The reports would contain a series of key performance indicators for the month just passed.

Paul Morley said he had been made aware of some issues regarding delays in information relating to forecasts and estimates being provided to people who were seeking to retire soon. Vicky Jenks (Pensions Admin Lead) said discussions had taken place with the HR and payroll teams at Warwickshire regarding what was expected in terms of relaying this information to West Yorkshire when it was requested. It was accepted that improvements needed to be made to the internal process to ensure the information was sent to West Yorkshire in a timely manner. There had been no change in terms of how the information was updated and who was responsible for it, but there had been changes to how it was processed as it needed to be sent to a different administrator. At the moment the client information held by West Yorkshire was accurate up to February 28; additional information would be required from HR and payroll at Warwickshire if a member indicated they wished to retire in 6-18 months’ time.

Regarding annual benefit statements, it was confirmed that going forward this would be handled by West Yorkshire. However Helen Scargill said she did not think all of the relevant information required to do this had yet been sent across. The deadline for sending annual benefit statements was August 31. Vicky Jenks said payroll had been chased to ensure the information is sent across to West Yorkshire as soon as possible. It was expected to be updated on a monthly basis going forward.