Agenda item

This item provides an update on the Hammersmith & Fulham Pension Fund’s partnership with the Local Pension Partnership Administration.

Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) introduced the report which provided a summary of activity in key areas of pension administration since 26 January 2022 when the H&F Pension Fund began its new partnership with LPPA. She said that the commencement of the service with LPPA had been challenging for all stakeholders, as LPPA had been implementing and familiarising themselves with the new software (UPM) and new processes while being hampered by system outage and errors coupled with large call volumes.

At the request of Councillor Laura Janes, Eleanor Dennis and David Hughes (Director of Audit, Fraud Risk and Insurance) outlined the background of John Raisin’s review report and recommendations.  The report made 32 recommendations concerning governance arrangements, investment and stakeholder management. Councillor Janes asked for a copy of the independent review report.

ACTION: Debbie Yau

Councillor Rowan Ree requested that Eleanor Dennis continued to update members on the progress made against the outstanding recommendations that concerned pension administration.  Eleanor Dennis advised that she would present the report going forward with the remaining pension administration actions to be provided to the Committee. She noted that there were other higher priority tasks such as the discretions policy outside the report’s recommendations that would be undertaken by the Pensions Administration team, that meant that at times there would be no change to the status of the report.

Councillor Ree was keen to ensure that the outstanding Annual Benefit statements could be delivered in November 2022.  John Crowhurst said that subject to information to be provided by the employers, those statements would be sent with acknowledgment of receipts by the end of November.

Noting that there were approximately 740 cases in one of the two backlogs waiting to be processed, Councillor Adrian Pascu-Tulbure said the amount was considerable and sought information on the types involved.   Eleanor Dennis said as she understood, some of these cases were requesting transferring out quotes, while cases relating to active or deferred retirement were relatively few.  She added that with the past administration the backlog had consisted of over 1,700 cases. Confirmation had already been provided by LPPA that they could commence work on the backlog in October 2022.

Noting the summary on the employer end of year process, Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier asked about the types of employers which did not submit the required information and the consequence for failing to do so by the deadlines. Eleanor Dennis said that they tended to be schools and contractors like cleaning companies, or employers that no longer existed. As pension administration was not part of their core business, they thought they had no obligation to undertake related work such as storing relevant legacy payroll data. The Pensions Administration team had been working hard to remind these employers of their responsibilities and obligations under the law.  Eleanor Dennis confirmed that those employers who chose not to engage despite these efforts might be fined by the Fund in line with the pension administration strategy.

Councillor Chevoppe-Verdier was concerned whether compensation was made to LBHF due to the system outage and errors.  John Crowhurst noted that it had happened only at the commencement of the service during which LPPA was completely aware of the situation and provided daily update. As a non-profit making entity, LPPA had not entered into a penalty clause on this in the SLA.  However, if similar problems lasted for more than 12 weeks, LPPA was required to devise a remedy plan, details of which would be included in the monthly risk and compliance report.

On Councillor Janes’ enquiry about feedback and complaints, if any, from members and employers, Eleanor Dennis advised that the in-house pension administration team were accessible to all stakeholders to support with any issues they might have, which included by phone as each member of the team had a direct phone line to enter into dialogue or receive complaints about the services.  Both employers and members could make use of the Employers’ Portal to express their satisfaction or otherwise.

Councillor Chevoppe-Verdier asked if members might resort to paper form if they were cut off digitally. John Crowhurst advised that members might contact LPPA via paper correspondence or face-to-face notwithstanding that the LPPA had recently relocated its London office to Preston. The Chair remarked that it was important alternative routes were available to suit individuals’ needs.

The Chair thanked the attendance of John Crowhurst and looked forward to LPPA’s updates in the future. John Crowhurst said he or his colleagues in members engagement team would be pleased to join the Committee’s future meetings.

RESOLVED

The Committee noted the contents of the report.