Issue - meetings

The Board is asked to consider the following report by the Director of Finance and Support Services which went to the Pensions Panel on 27 January 2020.

The Board is asked to note the report and confirm any further information that they require.

58.1   The Board received a report by the Director of Finance and Support Services (copy appended to the signed minutes).

58.2 The Board welcomed Andrew Lowe, Head of Pensions, Investment and Borrowing at Hampshire County Council, to the meeting.

58.3   Tara Atkins, Principal Pensions Consultant, and Andrew Lowe, introduced the report and informed the Board: -

·       Performance was heading in the right direction with all but the backlog at 100% in January.

·       The Data Improvement Plan had key milestones for the end of March to tie in with the end of the financial year.

·       The Contributions’ Monitor showed no late payments.

·       The number of people using the Portal was increasing and should continue to rise as new starters were encouraged to use it.

·       There had been two low risk data breaches since the report was written.

·       In January 2019 Hampshire took over 2,000 calls, all of which were dealt with in the allotted time. This January, with West Sussex joining Hampshire, there was nearly double the amount of calls, but all were still dealt with in the allotted time – there had also been over 3,000 emails to answer this January, 1,500 of which had dealt with at first point.

58.4   The following points were made in discussion: -

•     A team within the Pensions team dealt with all calls and emails.

•     Those leaving employment and those in retirement were being encouraged to use the Portal.

•     Membership numbers had increased due to recent more reliable reporting.

•     The number of leavers increased at the end of the school year as many teaching and non-teaching staff left employment at this time.

•     Hampshire’s IT team led on cyber breaches.

•     There had been no cyber breaches relating to data, only scam/spam emails – discussions were taking place about what needed to be reported.

58.5   Resolved – That the Board notes the update.

Report by the Director of Finance and Support Services.

The Panel is asked to consider the recommendation within the report.

49.1   The Panel considered a report by the Director of Finance and Support Services (copy appended to the signed minutes).

49.2   Katharine Eberhart introduced the report stating that all performance targets are working towards 100% with sustained improvements in most areas. 

49.3   Andrew Lowe drew the Panels attention to section 7 of the report detailing Pension Scams.  He assured the Panel that a set series of actions are followed if a member requests for their pension to be transferred.

49.4   The Panel made comments including those that follow.

•     The Panel asked for confirmation as to whether Trading Standards or the Police are informed if a scam is suspected.  Andrew Lowe would check if this was included in the process and report back to the Panel.

49.5   Resolved – that the update on the Administration Performance is noted.