Agenda item

This report updates the Pension Board on various pensions administration matters as part of its remit to oversee the administration of the Brent Pension Fund.

Sawan Shah (Head of Finance) introduced the report, which updated the Pension Board on various pension administration matters as part of its remit to oversee the administration of the Brent Pension Fund.  The Board was advised that the update included a review of performance against agreed Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for Q4 (Jan – March 24) as well as Q1 (April – June 24), with the Q4 update having been delayed as a result of the Board needing to be rescheduled due to the General Election.

Members noted the Q4 update, and in focussing on overall performance during Q1 2024-25 the Board was advised that performance was high overall, with 98.7% of all case types being processed, meeting contractual SLA targets as detailed in Figure 2 of the cover report.   In terms of ongoing casework performance, whilst this also remained good, the Board was advised of an underlying backlog in cases identified as an area that needed to be addressed.  Helpdesk call performance had remained good, with average call wait times in June being 2 minutes and 4 seconds, and over two-thirds of help desk callers (67%) surveyed as being satisfied. Similarly, LPPA's performance in relation to complaints had remained steady.  Since the last update to the Board, 38 new complaint cases have been received at a rate of 7.6 per month, with an analysis of case type provided in section 3.5 of the cover report.  Whilst the overall level of complaints was recognised as high compared to historical averages, these were noted to be gradually falling.  The Board was also pleased to note the increase in scheme members who had now registered for the online pension portal, which was higher than the migrat of the pension administration and workflow system to UPM.

Following introduction of the report, the Chair welcomed Emma Hebblethwaite from LPPA, the Council’s administration service provider, who provided a verbal update regarding recent pensions administration performance, with the update summarised below:

• Members were informed that overall operational casework performance remained positive for the first quarter, with a performance average of 98.7% against SLAs and the trend having continued during July.  This success was attributed to upskilling, training and recruitment of new staff.

• In noting the performance update in relation to ongoing casework, the Board was advised of the current focus on outstanding cases relating to retirements and bereavements, both of which remained above the 95% SLA.  Members were advised that the overall number of outstanding cases reflected the work also being undertaken during Q1 to process and complete Annual Benefit Statements with a further trigger identified as the recent overseas member life benefit certificate process.

• In terms of LPPA contact centre calls performance, the average wait time had consistently been under the target of 4 minutes, with a peak in calls (625) and wait times having been identified within April, which was traditionally one of the busy months given the end of the financial year. Despite this extra pressure, the call wait time in April remained under four minutes, which was attributed to the training of new staff at the help desk.  The information provided also included details on the abandoned call rates across LPPA, which it was noted remained low.

• In terms of Customer Satisfaction scores, these were also highlighted as being on an upward trend.  It was noted that Contact Centre satisfaction now included overall satisfaction scores as well as for the individual call handlers, which was typically higher than the overall score with scores for Q1 at 92.7% and 63.6% respectively and customer feedback subject to ongoing monitoring to support staff development and training.  The Q1 Administration report had also included satisfaction scores for retirements, although it was noted that these scores had been impacted by a majority of those surveyed not having responded with low response rates increasing volatility.  Of those who had responded customer satisfaction was 63.6%.

• The Board's attention was also drawn to the number of members signed up to the Member online Pension Portal, with registrations continuing to increase during Q1 and as of June 24, totalling 4,927 which was now higher than under the previous member portal.  The trend was predicted to continue as scheme members were encouraged to access their Annual Benefit Statements, update their personal details and seek estimates via the portal. It was felt this had notably improved member experience, with LPPA now providing the feature to view and upload documents online or on  mobile devices.

• Regarding complaints, members were informed that they were on a downward trend. In March, Brent had received 9 complaints, which had fallen to 4 in July.  Whilst no Internal Dispute Resolution Procedures (“IDRP”) were received in Q1 and one outstanding case had been determined and upheld, Brent and LPPA continued to take action to ensure that IDRP cases were resolved swiftly. However, the complex nature of some cases meant that it was not always possible to do so, with each case also reviewed following completion to ensure any lessons are learned and, if necessary, processes and procedures are amended.

After the verbal update, the Chair invited questions from Board members, with questions and responses summarised below:

• Further details were sought on reference within section 3.4.5 of the cover report to the disproportionately high number of deferred pensioners listed as scheme members and whether this may be indicative of any wider issues in terms of a backlog of data involving intra-fund transfers (members moving within the fund whose pension benefits had not been aggregated) or in other areas.  In response, the Board were advised this had been recognised as a trend, with more work needed to fully understand its causes. In terms of cases, there were 364 aged over 66 and 115 over 71.  In noting the need identified for a more detailed analysis of the reasons, the Board requested a further update for the next meeting.

• Clarification was sought on the reason for the dip in casework performance during August 2023, which had not met the SLA target.  In response, Emma Hebblethwaite (LPPA) explained that this reflected the focus and work being undertaken at the time to complete the pension administration system migration and transformation project, which had involved the need to train and upskill staff, with performance having returned to target levels following completion of the project.

The Board then moved on to consider the details and update provided in relation to progress on Annual Benefit Statements (ABS), with the statutory requirement for these to have been issued to all eligible active and deferred members by 31 August annually.  The Board was reminded on the requirement for scheme employers to now submit (with effect from April 2023) monthly returns to enable preparation of the ABS within the required timescale. Given the move to monthly returns, officers had been closely monitoring return submissions. A range of employer training sessions had also been delivered to support them in meeting the new requirement, along with regular communication and dialogue in advance of, and following the submission deadlines, with employers who had failed to submit returns. Regarding the current position, the Board were advised that (with the exception of four) all active employers were up to date with their submissions.  It was noted that the four unable to submit monthly returns had been able to submit an annual return, with work continuing to promote the benefits of the monthly return process and a further update to be provided for the Board at its next meeting on the final position.

In terms of the current position in relation to the production of the Annual Benefit Statements, Emma Hebblethwaite advised that of the deferred members who were eligible, 99.9% of scheme members had been completed.  For active members, 97.1% had been completed, meaning the overall 98.7% of scheme members had been provided with an ABS to date, which, unless they had opted for a paper version, had been made available via Pension Point.  Work was now focussed on dealing with any queries raised as a result, and in finalising any outstanding statements, working with the relevant scheme employers to finalise and address any issues relating to their submissions.

Having invited questions from Board members, the following issues were raised and responses provided:

• The Board sought further details as to how scheme members became aware that statements were ready to view on Pension Point. In response, the Board was advised this included a notice on how and where they could access their statements via a newsletter and also email notification, which would be supported by communication via the Council’s internal staff network and postal communication for those not yet registered on the portal.  In response to a request, it was agreed that details on the date the emails and notifications had been sent would be provided for the Board along with the recorded access rates.

• Highlighting the difficulties created by the final statutory deadline for issuing the statements and return of final school-based employer submissions during the school holiday period, details were sought on the work being undertaken to support schools and minimise delays.  In recognising the concerns highlighted, the Board was advised of the work being undertaken with scheme employers, including schools, to encourage the submission of monthly returns and to provide early reminders of the final deadlines for them needing to prepare and return their final submissions, which commenced in June in order to take account of the school holiday period.  Targeted work was also undertaken with those scheme employers where delays had been identified to support them through the process, with monthly returns felt to have improved the position overall and placed the Fund in a better position than previous years.  The improvements made were recognised by the Board, with officers and LPPA thanked for their efforts in this respect and the Board requesting to be kept updated on any scheme employers yet to engage in the process or who had failed to comply with their obligations to the Fund or to respond to requests for information.

In turning the Board's attention to the final part of the update, Sawan Shah (Head of Finance, Brent Council), then moved on to update members on a project involving migration of Brent’s current in-house pensions payroll to LPPA’s UPM system, which had been agreed by the Council’s General Purposes Committee in April 2024.  Members were advised this would involve extending the existing shared services agreement for pension administration with LPPA to include their pension payroll service, which it was noted would enable the end-to-end processing of calculation of pension benefits and payment of pensions to be carried out on the same system and negate previous issues experienced in having maintain data across two systems From a member perspective the Board was advised the integrated pensions and payroll service was expected to deliver benefits in terms of all administration related to pensions now being contained within a single system and all pensioner data being visible on the Pension Point portal.  In terms of progress, the Board was advised that the key service design principles (including payment dates, methods and processes for overseas payments, deductions, and payslips) had been agreed with the general ledger reporting requirement also provided to LPPA.  Data matching and pre-migration data cleanse was currently ongoing, with priority given to cases where there was no match or members with multiple employments.  Payroll data extracts for the first parallel run had been provided, which was planned for the end of September, with two further runs in October and November to assess usability. The expected rollout for the system was planned for January 2025.

Members were advised that the project was managed by a dedicated project manager at LPPA, working closely with officers from Brent’s pension and payroll team and Civica, with the high-level project timetable provided in Appendix 3 of the report.  Emma Hebblethwaite provided additional assurance regarding the experience of their other clients who had migrated with the system performing as expected. The new payroll portal site would be Pension Point, with members already registered automatically able to view their benefits.

In thanking Emma Hebblethwaite and Sawan Shah for the update, the Chair welcomed comments from the Board, with questions and responses summarised below:

• In response to further clarification being sought, confirmation was provided that the migration would only involve the pension payroll and not the main staff payroll function.  The migration was not expected to impact on staff within the current payroll team other than providing additional capacity to focus on the main payroll function.

Considering the updates provided, the Chair invited any general comments on the details provided with the following issue highlighted:

• Further details were sought on progress with the data quality project being undertaken by LPPA and any improvements identified as a result of scheme-specific data.  In response, Emma Hebblethwaite advised that work was progressing with the aim to improve data quality ahead of scheme valuations and the introduction of the Pensions Dashboard. LPPA had partnered with Civica and Intellica on the project, with work underway to create the relevant systems test environments and to agree on the scope of the Data Validation Checks (DVCs) that would be used to check the integrity of member data.  The project was also working towards producing a series of dashboards to provide clear visibility of the integrity and accuracy of the data held to comply with regulatory change (including McCloud) and support the launch of additional self-service and automation for members and employers.  It was anticipated that the initial dashboard and data validation results would be available during Q2, with the data reconciliation process also supported through the pension payroll migration.

As there were no further questions from Members, the Chair thanked the Pension Team and Emma Hebblethwaite for the update, and it was RESOLVED that the report be noted.