Agenda item

For Members to consider and comment on the Pension Fund Committee’s (Committee) actions tracker and forward programme of work.

Speakers:

Neil Mason, LGPS Senior Officer

Andy Brown, Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director - Resources

Tom Lewis, Head of Service Delivery

Key points raised in the discussion:

1.    The LGPS Senior Officer referred to the Forward Programme of Work, highlighting the sessions on 15 January and 21 March 2025 to be provided by the actuary regarding the valuation assumptions, including those related to climate risk.

2.    The LGPS Senior Officer noted that regarding item number 23: Progress of the 2023/24 Business Plan, for the 21 March 2025 Committee meeting, the year should be amended to 2025/26.

3.    The Chairman referred to action 7/24 regarding the continuing issues with Unit4/MySurrey, and the delegation to himself and the Chairman of the Local Pension Board to continue to progress it with senior Council officers. The matter had been discussed with the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director - Resources who understood the importance of the improvements needed. The Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director - Resources noted that Unit4/MySurrey was a priority and he attends the Stabilisation Board, and sought a resolution for pensions around auto-enrolments and correcting records.

4.    A Committee member noted that the MySurrey issue had been long-standing and was concerned that without more resources being committed there would never be a satisfactory conclusion. The LGPS Senior Officer highlighted the material improvements, that additional resource had been focused and that a resolution was in sight.

5.    A Committee member asked for the latest update on what the response had been to the letter. The Chairman noted that issues remained, the responsibility for making payroll payments was the Council’s; there was substantial work underway to ensure that members’ contributions were correctly recorded.

6.    The Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director - Resources noted that MySurrey went live in June 2023, Internal Audit had undertaken numerous reports. He noted that an update report on the Stabilisation Board set up in September 2024 was scheduled for January’s Audit and Governance Committee meeting. He would liaise with the LGPS Senior Officer to provide an update report to this Committee on the specific issues related to pensions. He noted that the i-Connect system was now providing data through into pensions, but the historical issue of contributions needed to be addressed; the stabilisation work and correcting of data going into pensions systems was now sufficient.

7.    The Head of Service Delivery referred to the i-Connect system and the monthly returns and final pay information for leavers was in place and working, with only minor issues to amend. The Pensions Payroll team was running those retrospectively from April to September to understand the cases. The team had been resourced to process the backlog of cases by June up to the valuation deadline. Once processed, work would start on data reconciliation regarding the contributions broken down by employer, to be run retrospectively to April to make any adjustments to contribution rates. Since the Stabilisation Board was set up, work had progressed thanks to the commitment between the Council and the Fund. There was some work to do on the employees’ side to ensure the right calculations and work to do on the employer side, but he was confident that would be sorted by January.

8.    The LGPS Senior Officer highlighted the extremely satisfactory progress made by the team in clearing other legacy issues. A Committee member commended the work by the Head of Service Delivery and his team.

9.    A Committee member noted that the Resources and Performance Select Committee set up a task group to look at the implementation of MySurrey. A report on lessons learned had been produced. The previous supplier had pulled out more suddenly than anticipated so the move to Unit4 was hurried. He noted that going forward extra precautions were necessary concerning changing critical systems. 

10.  A Committee member sought assurance that no members had suffered any loss or that they would be compensated if they had. The Head of Service Delivery noted that he was not aware of any specific cases where a member had lost out regarding their benefits. There had been cases where the team had intervened to ensure that a member was not waiting for a long period; their benefit would be processed using the information available and updated once the final information was available. He acknowledged members’ complaints and concerns about significant delays in getting their benefits. To make progress as quickly as possible, for an interim period the team was carrying out the employer functions on behalf of the Council.

11.  The Head of Service Delivery noted that the Deputy Head of Accounting and Governance had been working on understanding the requirements from an accounts and finance perspective. The Stabilisation Board had placed it as a high-risk area to ensure that the appropriate action was being taken.

RESOLVED:

1.    Noted the content of this report.

2.    Made no recommendations to the Local Pension Board.

3.    Monitored progress on the implementation of recommendations from previous meetings in Annexe 2.

4.    Reviewed and noted the one change on the Forward Programme of Work in Annexe 3.

Actions/further information to be provided:

1.    13/24 - The Committee Manager will amend the year regarding item number 23: Progress of the 2023/24 Business Plan, to 2025/26.

2.    14/24 - The Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director - Resources will liaise with the LGPS Senior Officer to provide an update report to this Committee on the specific issues related to pensions, concerning the MySurrey Stabilisation Board.