Ms Miriam Adams, Interim Head of Pensions and Treasury said the report provided members with information relating to the administration and performance of the Fund over the last quarter as well as updates on key LGPS issues and initiatives which impact the Fund.

Ms Adams referred to the tables at paragraphs 3.1 and 3.2 and the number of active and deferred members as well as paragraph 3.5 which referred to Purgo Supply Services Limited who were admitted to the scheme on the 1st April 2021.

Ms Adams also highlighted the progress made with the Members Self Service portal, paragraph 3.9 and said excellent progress had been made with the roll out, ahead of the timetable for employees in Mulberry Place, Tower Hamlets Homes and St Paul’s Trust.

In response to questions from Members the following was noted:

• Councillor Edgar asked what had been done to contact the 1,826 ‘frozen’ members referred to in table 3.1. Ms Adams said this task had been identified as part of the remedial action plan. However, work on this had not begun due to the current resources available. She said once additional staff had been recruited it would be a job for them to check the personal information held and try to contact members to establish if they wanted a refund or not.
• Councillor Blake queried what administrative capacity the Pensions team had, given the number of tasks shown in table 3.3 had steadily increased. Ms Adams responded stating that she hoped the Members Self-Service portal would assist with the updating of individual members personal information and that the recruitment of permanent staff would also assist in reducing the number of outstanding tasks.
• Ms Adams said the number of starters shown in table at 3.3 also included staff who had been reappointed following service restructures. She said the HR payroll system did not differentiate between the two and therefore each entry had to be checked to verify if they are a new starter or not.
• In response to if Ms Adams thought this was transitory or something the team would have to carry out long-term, she said she was working with the Divisional Director of HR and had referred them to the online ‘post number’ app called bucket post, where more than one employee on a post number can be entered and said she had received reassurances from HR that this would be looked at in July. She said there was not a short-term fix to this but hoped employers would start to use i-connect to upload details as this would help enormously.  
• In reference to paragraph 3.4 and the number of employers still not using i-connect, Ms Adams said the Pensions team had had several successes with employers coming on board to use the portal. She said the eight organisations listed at 3.4 were linked to the Council’s payroll and therefore work was being undertaken to encourage them to send data via the i-connect portal.
• Mr Bartle, Interim Corporate Director for Resources added this had been a tough and difficult challenge. The Pensions audit was heavily linked with the overall auditing of the Accounts. He said Ms Adams had worked to recalibrate the membership figures for 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 but this was a mammoth task, especially given the problems in recruiting permanent staff.  He said it was such a disappointment as it would appear the system has not worked correctly since the very start. Mr Bartle said they may need to consider other approaches such as external consultants to help to resolve this issue.

The Pensions Committee RESOLVED to:

1. Note and comment on the contents of the report and appendix; and
2. Agreed the admission of Purgo Supply Services Limited to the Scheme.