Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Michael Adam and Iain Cassidy.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

This paper resets out a summary of the performance of the Local Pension Partnership Administration (LPPA) in providing a pension administration service to the Hammersmith & Fulham Fund which will be presented to the Committee by the Managing Director of LPPA.

Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) introduced the report which provided a summary of the performance of the Local Pension Partnership Administration (LPPA) in providing a pension administration service to the Council’s Pension Fund which would be presented to the Committee by the Managing Director of LPPA.

Jo Darbyshire (LPPA) provided a presentation on the performance of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) from 1^st April to 30^th June 2023 detailed in appendix 1. She also presented a summary of LPPA challenges and performance across all clients, as well as highlighting increased recruitment.

In relation to help desk calls, Councillor Adrian Pascu-Tulbure asked if there were any specific trends stemming from when the service was at its busiest and what measures were in place to support this. In response, Jo Darbyshire noted that Monday’s and the end of the month were the busiest times for helpdesk calls. The Committee noted that weather conditions also had a bearing on the total number of calls received. Jo Darbyshire confirmed that LPPA had more resources in place to accommodate the additional calls.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang asked for further clarification to be provided on the 82 transfers out. Jo Darbyshire explained that the transfers out applied to people who had left their employment with the local government and no longer qualified to be part of the LGPS.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang enquired whether there had been an increase in members opting out of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). Jo Darbyshire said, that at the beginning of the cost-of-living crisis, there was an increase in opt out and 50/50 scheme contribution enquiries, however this had stabilised over the last few months. She also outlined the process of auto enrolment, highlighting that if members chose to opt out, they would automatically be opted back into the main section of the scheme after three years.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang felt that communication with members was vital and suggested that members be encouraged to remain within the scheme and notified of the benefits, if Officers noticed an increase in the opt out rate. Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) explained that the Local Government Association (LGA) investigated the opt out rate across all LGPS Funds. The findings concluded that there wasn’t a spike in the opt out rate due to the pressures around the cost of living. It was noted that the LGA continued to monitor this matter.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang requested that the figures from the LGA investigation be shared with the Committee.

ACTION: Eleanor Dennis

Councillor Laura Janes thanked LPPA for the detailed presentation. She noted the Committee’s concerns about the lack of progress to improve service performance since the last meeting with LPPA in October 2022. Jo Darbyshire explained the delay had been caused by the time it had taken to implement and familiarise staff with the functionality of the UPM system. Other factors included the recruitment of good quality administrative staff.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang echoed Councillor Laura Janes’s concerns and enquired  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

This item provides an update on the pension administration service.

Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) presented the report and gave a summary of activity in the key areas of pension administration for the Council’s Pension Fund. Challenges included increasing complex legislation, data challenges, limited resources, and difficulty in engaging with employers, which meant some issues would take months or years to resolve fully.

It was noted all-officer log of recommendations report would be presented at the next Pension Fund meeting.

The Head of Pensions highlighted to the Committee that there was increasing focus in the pensions landscape including from the Pensions Regulator for governing bodies of pension schemes such as the Pension Committee to evidence and work towards better equality, diversity and inclusion. In line with this she proposed that the Committee agree to a draft Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion statement that would be circulated to the Committee for review and be published on the Pension Fund website.

ACTION: Eleanor Dennis

The Chair congratulated the Council’s pension team ,Tri borough Investment Team and Pension Fund Committee members past and present for their contribution in achieving the LGPS fund of the year award.

• Jo Darbyshire (LPPA) provided a presentation on McCloud and LPPA’s future goals.

Willam O’Connell (Pension Board Member) enquired when LPPA would be up to date with the cases in line with the McCloud remedy requirement. Jo Darbyshire noted that there was a high volume of cases to review, and this could take longer than proposed18 months. It was noted that updates on LPPA’s future plans on how to action these cases would  continue to be brought to a committee meetings..

Referring to page 21 of the agenda pack, Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier asked for further clarification to be provided in relation to the overpayments. In response Eleanor Dennis noted that the overpayments were in respect of legacy bereavement cases. Which were inherited from the Council’s previous pension Administrator. The pension team continued to work with LPPA and the Council’s debt recovery teams to try to recover further outstanding overpayment monies.

Referring to page 21 of the agenda pack, Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier enquired how much of the Teams time was devoted to supporting LPPA. Eleanor Dennis noted that whilst this was a valid point, however it was challenging to quantify the time the LBHF pensionteam spent on these additional activities. It was noted that work within the team was varied and not time driven. However, the team continued to record issues including bereavement cases and feed these back to LPPA to resolve and improve.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee noted the update.

This paper sets out cessation activity for the Fund. There is also a recommendation of a decision to be made by the Committee with reference to a Fund employer that have ceased in the Fund but have a surplus at the time that they are ceasing to be a participating employer in the Fund. The recommendation is that the surplus is processed as detailed in Exempt Appendix 1.

This item includes appendices that contain exempt information. Discussion of the appendices will require passing the proposed resolution at the end of the agenda to exclude members of the public and press.

Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) presented the report which outlined the cessation activity for the Fund.

It was noted that an amended set of recommendations were published and circulated to the Committee on 23^rd October 2023.

The paper included a recommendation of a decision to be made by the Committee with reference to a Fund employer that had ceased in the Fund but had a surplus at the time that they are ceasing to be a participating employer in the Fund. The recommendation was that the surplus was processed as detailed in Exempt Appendix 1 (Amended) - Exempt information, implications, and recommendations.

Members discussed Exempt Appendix 1 (Amended) in the exempt session at the end of the meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the Pension Fund Committee:

1      Approved that appendices (1-8) were not for publication on the basis that it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) as set out in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

2      Approved the payment of exit credits as set out in Exempt Appendix 1 (Amended) - Exempt information, implications, and recommendations.

The next meeting will take place on 15 November 2023.

The date of the next meeting was noted as 15November 2023.

The Committee is invited to resolve, under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business, on the grounds that they contain the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Committee agreed, under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business, on the grounds that they contain the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Pensions Board members left the meeting.