Minutes from the Local Firefighters Pension Board meeting help on Thursday 9 July 2020 at 1pm via Zoom
Attendees:
Board Members:
DCFO Craig Parkin - Employer Representative (CP)
Mark Stillwell (FBU) - Employee Representative (MS)
Cllr Sybil Fielding - Employer Representative (SF)
Bryn Coleman - Employee Representative (BC)
Board Advisers
Becky Smeathers - Scheme Manager (BS)
Nick Linthwaite - HR Adviser (NL)
Ian Howe - Scheme Administrator (IH)
Elena Johnston - Assistant Scheme Administrator (EJ)
9 July 2020 Local Firefighters Pension Board Meeting
Agenda Item | Commentary
| Outcome | Decision log. Action... |
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By Whom | By When |
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1 |
Declarations of Potential Conflicts of Interest | | | |
| Nil | | | |
2 |
Apologies for absence | | | |
| Nil | | | |
3 |
Confirmation of Minutes of 24 October 2019 | | | |
| The minutes were recorded as a true record
Review of Training Policy Action: BS to send our the Learning Needs Analysis to all |
Action: BS to send our the Learning Needs Analysis to all |
BS | |
4 |
Current Issues | | | |
| BS discussed the Current Pension Issues report. The contract for the Pension Scheme Administrator has been awarded to West Yorkshire Pension Fund who are already the provider for two other Fire Authorities. A different system, Civica, will be used, BS is confident this won’t be an issue. Costs have generally been lower due to the use of Civica. An additional budget will cover the transition. MS asked whether the self-service portal will link across. - This will require discussion and a meeting is planned. It is in the contract of requirements. GAD have requested information which IH’s team have provided – all is going to plan and should be in on time. No immediate concerns. LGA have provided the wording for future job adverts that raise tax awareness. ABS statements are on target to be issued by the deadline of 31 August 2020. Given the staffing pressures on the administration team and the issue that they will not be correct following the McCloud judgement, the decision has been made not to include the forward projection of pensions for the 2019/20 ABS. The TPR annual survey was completed in December, BS has circulated it to all. Areas identified are improving from last year i.e. cyber security. There is an issue on some questions asked around data which BS has responded to. | | | |
5 |
Risk Register | | | |
| The main change is the transfer to the new administrator – this remains the number one risk. It is hoped both systems will parallel run in December prior to going live with the new system in January in order to reduce risks. BS added a risk – ‘Interruption in service due to COVID 19’. It was agreed all pandemics should come under this risk. | | | |
6 |
Pension Fund Administrator Report - July 2020 | | | |
| The July report covers April – June. Work on the ABS and taxation statements has commenced with deferred statements for ’06 members. The biggest change for the valuation for GAD is the hours for McCloud. There have been no regulatory changes. LGA will be issuing further information on the Sargeant case if there are changes to the remedy. No risks or breaches. | | | |
7 |
Pension Fund Administrator Report - March 2020 | | | |
| The March report covers October – December. Scheme specific data is 53.7% which is a drop due to the information being requested not being fully considered. This applies to all Heywood users. Termination of admin – IH is working with Heywoods who are aware the system will be Civica and therefore extraction work is required to move data to Civica, the pensioner payroll will also require aligning. There are a large number of personnel working on this and once the project plan is completed it will be shared with Heywoods. Two or three data cuts are generally required to move all of the data over properly. | | | |
8 |
Firefighter Pension Scheme Bulletin | | | |
| The bulletin was circulated to all for review. Another court case regarding on-call which states they should have been entitled to join for all of their working lives. There may be issues with records not going back far enough.
Action: BS to add the future court case potential costs to the risk register |
BS to add the future court case potential costs to the risk register |
BS | |
9 |
Any Other Business | | | |
| Nil | | | |
10 |
Next Meeting | | | |
|
| | | |
Pension Board Meeting Actions (as at 24 October 2019)
Index | SMF Discussion Date | Subject | Commentary | Due Date | By Whom | Completed | Overdue | Comment |
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23 |
| Link to Administrators page | A link to the Pension Administrator’s page to be added to MyNet so that the form can be accessed easily. EJ to send a copy to NL. | | EJ/NL |
| | |
31 |
| Presentation on 2016 Valuation Results | BS to discuss with other scheme managers to establish their viewpoints and feedback the consensus to E | | BS |
| | |
32 |
| Current Issues | BS to remove 2.1 for the next report | | BS |
| | |
33 |
| Current Issues | BS to keep Board informed of the 27 cases | | BS | | | |
34 |
| Risk Register | BS to bring the audit findings to the next board meeting | Next Board Meeting | BS |
| | |
35 |
| Risk Register | EJ will check on cyber security | | EJ |
| | |
36 |
| Annual Report | Any comments on the report to be fedback to BS | | All |
| | |
37 |
| Declarations of Potential Conflicts of Interest | All to return completed declaration of potential conflicts of interest form to BS | | All | | | |
38 |
| Review of Training Policy | All to complete the learning needs analysis | | All | | | |
39 |
| Firefighter Pension Scheme Bulletin | Any queries on the bulletin to contact BS | | All |
| | |
40 |
| Firefighter Pension Scheme Bulletin | BS to add the changes in scoring to the risk register | | All |
| | |
41 |
| Any Other Business – Split Pension Rule | IH to discuss the split pension rule with their ICT department to establish whether they could write a report that would identify those cases | | IH | | | |
42 |
| Firefighter Pension Scheme Bulletin | BS to add the future court case potential costs to the risk register | | BS |
| | |