Agenda item

Report by the Director of Finance and Support Services.

The Committee is asked to note the report.

77.1     The Committee considered a report by the Director of Finance and Support Services.  Taryn Eves introduced the report (copy appended to the signed minutes) and highlighted the key points as set out in the summary including that a meeting had been held recently between WSCC pensions officers and the Hampshire administrators to talk through past performance and priorities for the coming year.  Andrew Lowe highlighted in respect of the government led Pension Dashboard, that the delay was a national issue and while it was hoped the September 2024 date for implementation would remain firm, it remained to be seen whether that would be the case.

77.2     The Committee comments included:

a.  to question what could be done to increase the number of fund members accessing the portal.  Andrew Lowe confirmed there had been a 6% increase in numbers using the portal at the end of March 2023 compared with the same date in 2022, that this would increase as new starters joined but that there would always be a cohort that would not wish to use the portal

b.  to question the length of the Hampshire administration contract with West Sussex County Council.  Taryn Eves explained that the partnership arrangement with Hampshire had no end date and agreed the possibility of Hampshire County Council no longer wishing to administer the Fund would be added to the risk register.

c.  to note that the Administration Activity table of Key Performance Indicators at Appendix A showed that all Indicators were being met but the casework in progress on the following page suggested several cases had not met the key indicators in terms of time taken to resolve issues.  Andrew Lowe explained that the first table showed the total number of working days taken to resolve an issue, the second page included the lapsed time where progress could not be made as the team was waiting on information from third parties.  It was suggested that it would be useful to know how long the gaps were and what the reasons for delay was.

d.  to note that average wait times for calls to be answered by the administration team had doubled between July 2022 and February 2023.  Rachel Wood undertook to keep this under review.

e.  to question whether pension fund members were encouraged to contact the team via phone or email.  Andrew Lowe explained that all methods of communication were encouraged, and people could expect to have queries responded to within five working days.  Rachel Wood added that the member portal was also promoted as a communications tool.

f.   to note that the spring budget had brought about a significant change to the way pensions were taxed with the removal of the lifetime allowance charge and to question what communications had been made to pension fund members to ensure this was understood.  Andrew Lowe explained that information on the tax change was on the website along with links to the HMRC Guidance and it would be updated for the upcoming end of year.

g.  to question the number of long-service members working for West Sussex County Council who were approaching the retirement threshold and, with the taxation changes, what that could mean for the Council as well as the Fund.  Taryn Eves undertook to investigate this and come back to the next Committee meeting with a verbal report.  Andrew Lowe added that the Fund was not currently seeing a fall in active membership.

h.  to note the update concerning a death grant at paragraph 8.2, that no conclusion had yet been reached also that these issues were very few.

i.   to note complaints arising from issues related to data cleansing and to question whether the cleansing was complete.  Rachel Wood explained that this work would never be 100% complete or correct and the challenge was to catch issues early by encouraging members to look at their annual benefit statements.

77.3     Resolved – that the Pensions Committee noted the report.