Agenda item

Hampshire Pension Services Annual Administration Report

To received the annual administration report from Hampshire Pension Services.

Minutes:

The Board received the annual administration report from Hampshire Pension Services from the Chief Financial Officer (item 8 in the minute book).

 

It was noted that the report omitted the Matthews remedy, which is acceptable as it is not technically related to Pensions. The team had successfully hit their current targets and was on track to meet upcoming ones. The report also covered membership and administrative performance, highlighting that 100% of cases were dealt with on time, with many being completed before the deadline. There were no complaints reported. Regular audits had been completed, with more scheduled in the future. Cyber security remained a significant ongoing issue but was being addressed as part of the external audit.

 

Customer Service Excellence and The Pension Regulator scores were reasonably high, although there was missing data that still needed to be completed. None of the missing data had caused issues with payouts. There is the potential for a significant increase in pension numbers due to the Matthews remedy. It was noted that estimates used for charts lacked clear timeframes, suggesting a non-holistic approach. A holistic approach would be more beneficial for the Board. The Chief Financial Officer advised communications had been sent out about requesting pension estimates.

 

The Board discussed the report’s classification of the estimate timeframe, determining that it started not from the date of the request but from when other teams had completed their actions and it was received by the Pensions team. The Chief Financial Officer would address the issue of delays and arrange better communications. The report showed an average maximum wait time of 64 seconds for calls to be answered and The Chief Financial Officer offered to query the term ‘average maximum wait time’ to provide accurate data to the Board.

 

There had been an increase in registrations to the Member Portal, and the upcoming Annual Member Statement was expected to boost this further. Currently, 40% of active Firefighters were not registered.

 

The upcoming Pension Dashboards project would allow members to see all previous pensions held. This large-scale Government project aimed to gather accurate data by the October 2025 deadline, which would be especially helpful for on-call firefighters with alternate jobs. The project currently targeted large companies, with smaller ones expected to join later, minimising the risk of ‘lost’ pensions. The Pension Team would circulate information when available.

 

Cyber security testing was ongoing, with most issues related to end-user passwords. Richard North noted that the secondary sign-on method recently changed from email to text message, which was faster and more efficient.

 

Cllr Price suggested reducing abbreviations in the report or including a list of abbreviations to make it more accessible which the Chief Financial Officer agreed to investigate for future reporting.

 

The Chairman inquired about the impact of increased pension volume on payments. The Chief Financial Officer explained that project costs for McCloud and Matthews were being paid, and ongoing costs would be assessed moving forward. The Board would evaluate whether Hampshire Pension Services or another provider was the best option, however, as a Firefighter Pension, there are a limited number of suitable providers. It was agreed that the potential cost increase should be added to the Risk Register.

 

RESOLUTION

 

The content of the report was noted by the HIWFRA Firefighters' Pension Board.

 

Supporting documents: