Issue - meetings

The item was introduced by Lisa Eglesfield. Sign-up to the member self-service portal was continuing to increase and were comparable with other local government pension schemes. Communications encouraging pension holders to sign up to the portal were continuing to be sent out.

Key performance indicators were continuing to improve. External factors outside of the team’s control had had an impact on the ability to meet some of the measures; for example, the KPI relating to the SCAPE discount rate had been affected due to a delayed update from the government’s actuarial department impacting on calculations. The notice of termination form for retiring members had been redesigned as it was believed the drop in performance was related to employers being delayed by having to request additional information. Lisa Eglesfield said the Local Government Association had advised to block certain transfers for pension holders being in scope for the McCloud remedy, which was also affecting the team’s KPIs.

No concerns had been raised over the performance of the payroll team in the latest quarterly review. The introduction of the iConnect system and member self-service portal had massively reduced the number of required data entry tasks, freeing up staff for other projects. The telephony system was being updated to make it easier to obtain data on the number and length of calls received, and which topic they related to.

Members were told no further action would be taken against a Multi Academy Trust that had been in red breach due to a persistent failure to provide data to the Fund in a timely manner. The Trust had been reported to the Pensions Regulator, which had made the ruling that no action would be taken as the missing data had now been supplied and the Trust’s payroll provider was working more effectively with the Fund.

Lisa Eglesfield said there had been a second IDRP reported since the time the report was written. Both were at the initial investigation stage.

The implementation date of the pensions dashboard programme had been moved from October 2026 to October 2025. Lisa Eglesfield said this was the date the data needed to be provided by, not when the system would go live. She said she was confident this would be done by the revised date. Procurement for an integrated service provider to supply this had begun. A tracing exercise to establish missing addresses and other details would also take place. Jeff Carruthers said there had been issues with the software provider dealing with the pensions dashboard within the police service, and said he was reassured this not the case within the Warwickshire Pension Fund.

McCloud cases were now being processed following the implementation of the new legislation on 1 October 2023. Lisa Eglesfield said although there was a large number of people that were in scope for the project, the number that would actually see a change in benefits was very low.

Responding to a question from Jeff Carruthers, Lisa Eglesfield said quarterly meetings were planned with employers relating  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3