Agenda item

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.

Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) introduced the report which provided a summary of the performance of the Local Pension Partnership Administration (LPPA) for Q2 of the Pension Fund scheme year 2023/24. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) detailed in Appendix 1 of the pension administration report covered the period 1^st July 2023 to 30^th September 2023 inclusive. Whilst it was encouraging to see consistency of KPI performance from Q1 to Q2, it was disappointing that LPPA had not met their targets as promised across all case types. LPPA admit that there was improvement to be made and had acknowledged that this would take longer than hoped to achieve. This would continue to be closely managed by the Head of Pensions.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang thanked Eleanor Dennis for sharing the figures for the pensions opt out rate from the Local Government Association investigation. It was noted that there had been a significantly large number of members opting out of the pensions scheme across all LGPS Funds. He requested that Officers continued to monitor this matter.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang enquired how employer contribution for the pensions scheme was determined. In response Eleanor Dennis explained  that the calculation varied across the board and was specific to the individual employer and their liabilities, economic stability, and membership.

Councillor Laura Janes expressed her concerns around the KPI’s for active retirements, noting that Q2 only saw a small increase in comparison to Q1.  She enquired when LPPA aimed to achieve their target of 95%. Eleanor Dennis noted that although the performance on this task area had seen some improvement, she agreed that this required further work. Based on the feedback received from LPPA the key challenges they faced relating to active retirement cases were mainly due to employers not engaging and data missing on leaver forms. The Head of Pensions and her team were working closely with LPPA to improve this process and mitigate any delays.

Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier asked why there were no statistics in place for telephone helpdesk queries. In response, Eleanor Dennis confirmed that she would work with LPPA to provide the Committee with specific client Helpdesk data in the next report.

Action: Eleanor Dennis

Referring to page 32 of the agenda pack, Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier requested that additional granular data be provided to the Committee in relation to the death in retirement figures. Eleanor Dennis noted that she had requested this information from LPPA but due to resource issues within the organisation there had been a delay in receiving this. However, this would be circulated to the Committee outside of this meeting as soon as this was available.

Action: Eleanor Dennis

In response to a questioned asked by the Chair, Eleanor Dennis noted that she had drafted a formal letter to send to the Managing Director of LPPA.  –This had been forwarded to Councillor Ross Melton to review and would also be circulated to the Committee for further comment. 

Action: Eleanor Dennis

RESOLVED:

That the Committee noted the update.