Issue - meetings

The item was introduced by Vicky Jenks, who provided members with an update on the work of the administration team. The main project being worked on was the member self-service portal. This year’s pension statements had been provided digitally, except for cases where the member had opted in to continue receiving paper copies. All deferred annual benefit statements had now been released; there had been errors in a small number , meaning not all of the statements were ready by the deadline, as these were still being worked on. Vicky Jenks said 98 per cent of the active annual benefit statements had been released by 6 August. There were issues with 354 statements as there were queries with the data provided by the employer. Overall there had been a reduction in the number of queries at year end. The introduction of the iConnect system was credited with helping this. Responding to a point raised by the Chair, Vicky Jenks said takeup to member self service had been quite good. If anyone contacted the Fund with a query they would be directed to the portal and asked to set up an account. Steps were also being taken to promote the portal amongst employers. At the time of the report being published 24 per cent of eligible scheme members had signed up, and it was expected this figure had increased since. It was noted that awareness on pensions was increasing nationally, and a campaign was due to start at the end of the month. Vicky Jenks said the data was being checked on a more regular basis by the pensions team and the funds actuary  and it it had been noted thatdata quality had improved..

Responding to a point raised by the Chair, Vicky Jenks said not all of the key performance indicators were on target to be met due to workload priorities. For example the Fund had undergone a valuation this year and resources had needed to be allocated to this as a priority. However the performance of a number of KPIs were improving and processes were being looked at to see if efficiency could be improved further. Vicky Jenks said the timescales for the KPIs would be available in the annual report. The Chair expressed his concern at the low level of letters being sent that notified dependents of pensionable amounts, which was KPI 9 on the chart in the report appendix.

Regarding breaches, Vicky Jenks said there had been an ongoing  issue with the Birmingham Diocese Academy Trust. This was because it had not been possible to get the required information from them in a timely manner following a change of payroll provider. It was eventually progressed following a conversation with the Trust’s chief financial officer. Although six breaches were listed, these were all from the one employer who have 6 schools with in their Trust.. The Trust was now using iConnect and it was not anticipated there would be any issues in the future. Vicky Jenks said the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2