Agenda item

Pension Board Status Report and Risk Register Review

To receive a report providing a HIWFRA specific activity update. 

Minutes:

The Board received the Pension Board Status Report and Risk Register Review from the Chief Financial Officer (item 10 in the minute book).

 

A presentation was given at the pre-retirement conference in July, and follow-up information would be sent to attendees. The Pension Section on the Portal, mentioned in Routine Notice, included a link to a SharePoint page where the information was permanently held.

 

The Local Government Association (LGA) hosted regular sessions where attendees could interact with IBC, HR, Pensions, and occasionally National Fire Chiefs.

 

HR & Pensions met with Hampshire Pension Services, and it was reminded that Pension re-enrolment was mandatory every three years, but people could opt-out once this had been completed if they wished to. Last time, sixty-eight were registered, and only fifty-five opted out. Opt-out rates for new recruits are being measured, and currently, all new recruits are in the Scheme.

 

Cllr Price inquired if all new recruits signed into the Portal. The Chief Financial Officer confirmed that it was emphasised in the recent presentation, and recruits were advised to sign in at that time.

 

Progress on the implementation of McCloud was discussed, with confirmation that some issues remain unresolved. The topic of tax on interest payments was revisited from the last meeting, specifically addressing the 8% interest rate offered, which aligns with Tribunal payouts. However, this rate exceeds the base rate, resulting in unfairly high tax penalties. It was noted that these higher tax penalties have now been approved for removal and are no longer applied. 

A new issue with the 1992 scheme was highlighted relating to potential double taxation, but the financial risk to the Service was low and calculated. The approach would be applied cohort by cohort moving forward and Board was satisfied with this approach. An update would be provided to the Board following a written Ministerial Statement that would be issued and the Chief Financial Officer would look at potential communications with staff and these would include if felt beneficial.

 

The report examined compensation in two ways, and it was confirmed that the automatic compensation involved no loss of monies from the Service, while the non-automatic compensation could. The main cost was currently believed to be in administration. Communications will need to go out on this matter, but not until it is significantly clearer. Fortunately, the six-month timeframe did not start until a process window was opened, and it was expected that national guidance would be received by that point.

 

Regarding Matthews, the Chief Financial Officer confirmed that a complicated calculator and statement have been issued and the Authority was proceeding based on what it was believed the rules would change to.

 

The Board was pleased to learn that the IBC Pensions team was making satisfactory progress, It was queried whether communications would go out or virtual Q&A sessions would be offered and confirmed that whilst basic questions should be dealt with by HR, there would be lots of individual queries.

 

Richard North suggested duplicating communications to the Past Members Association and was happy to do that himself. It was discussed that there are no Government communications being released about this, so communications should be sent to Internal and Past Members Association to advise that this is coming out, who it is coming from, etc. Social media communications will also be considered.

 

The Risk Register had been updated to include changes in personnel, which would be removed once the handover to HR had been completed. A new risk will be added relating to compensation and it was also agreed to add a risk showing the increase in costs due to the increase in pension numbers.

 

RESOLUTION

 

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

 

  • The risk register as set out in paragraphs 32 - 39 and Appendix A was approved by the HIWFRA Firefighters’ Pension Board with the following additions: a new risk related to compensation and an additional risk reflecting the increased costs due to the rise in pension numbers. 

 

Supporting documents: