Issue - meetings

The item was introduced by Lisa Eglesfield. She said that usage and takeup of the Member Self-Service portal was continuing to slowly increase. Data showed members were performing administrative tasks themselves, freeing up staff to perform other duties.

Annual benefit statements for active and deferred members were due to be sent out within the next few weeks and would be released onto the portal. Members with an email address would be contacted to encourage them to access and sign up to the portal to view their statement. Annual benefit statements for live members would be issued by 31 August and this deadline was on target to be met.

The key performance indicators had changed for the new financial year and had increased in number. Currently there were five that were off target, of which two were new and processes relating to them were taking time to embed.

P60s had been sent out to all pension holders well before the deadline of 31 May.

Updated guidance received from the Scheme Advisory Board stated that annual reports should now include data on matters such as work in progress, phone calls and emails received, staff experiences, and number of vacancies. Processes had been set up that would enable this data to be compiled, which would also be used by the Council’s internal reporting teams.

There had been a breach against 12 employers in February and March due to late iConnect reports. This issue was linked to a change in payroll provider. Lisa Eglesfield said the pensions team were continually looking at more ways to engage with our employers on the importance of informing them of payroll system changes so there would be no disruption to the return of information. Reminders were sent out in the monthly newsletter and at quarterly meetings.

There had been two Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure claims. One had been completed and there had been no change to the initial decision, and the other was still at the investigation stage.

Good progress was being made with the pensions dashboard project and the Fund was on track to meet the connection date of 31 October 2025. The date for the public to connect to the dashboard was still to be announced. Lisa Eglesfield said the Fund had an approved business case for the project, an action plan and project manager, and it was reaching the final stages of procurement of the integrated service provider to connect the Fund to the dashboard. A Norfolk framework was being used to facilitate the ISP procurement.

The McCloud project was drawing to a close and all future work would be calculated in line with the new regulations. The project team have now returned to their usual team positions and are working through the calculations performed during the remedy period to check for any rectification needed. Lisa Eglesfield said 14,000 in-scope people had been identified; out of those, 11,500 records had been completely finished. Work was being done in line with LGA guidance on prioritising the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3