Focus November 2024
A downloadable version of this newsletter is available below.
Along with all the other Fund’s participating Scheme employers, you are invited to attend our Fund’s AGM on Tuesday 12 November 2024. This event will be held on Microsoft Teams, commencing at 2.00pm and concluding around 4.00pm.
As well as presenting the Fund’s Annual Report and Accounts, an update on the administration and investment of the Fund will form part of the agenda together with time for the Fund Actuary to speak to you about the challenges facing the LGPS and the wider pensions industry which may impact you or your organisation. The Actuary will also be taking the opportunity to outline what you might expect from the Actuarial Valuation of the Fund taking place on 31 March 2025.
We would be delighted for as many representatives as possible from the Fund’s participating Scheme employers to join the meeting, so please forward this information to anyone else that you think might be interested.
If you would like to attend, please register your interest via the link below:
*Please note: attendees will receive access instructions (“join link”) approximately 1 week beforehand.
Staffordshire Pension Fund held an employer training day on 1 October 2024 which proved to be a successful and well attended event.
Presentations were made by Fund Officers and covered the following areas:
- Outsourcing
- i-Connect
- Employer Website
- Assumed Pensionable Pay (APP)
- Ill Health Retirement
- Employer’s Q&A
Full copies of the presentation slides are available on our website
We will be looking at holding more employer events in 2025 so hope to see you at a future session.
We currently run an Employer Focus Peer Group which meets quarterly to discuss a range of issues relating to pensions which impact the work of Scheme employers and Fund Officers.
This group consists of representatives from across the Fund’s Scheme employer base including District Councils, educational establishments, private companies and other participating organisations. However, we currently only have a single Academy representative and are very keen to encourage others to put their names forward.
We understand that there are topics/issues that may be specific to Academies so are exploring the possibility of setting up a separate Academy Focus Peer Group, should there be sufficient interest.
If you would be interested in joining this group and are able to represent your Academy/Trust, please contact Simon Jackson (01785) 276450 or email simon.jackson@staffordshire.gov.uk
New pay rates for Local Government employees have been issued effective from 1 April 2024. The NJC have encouraged employers to implement the pay award as swiftly as possible. For those covered by the “Green Book” agreement, the pay award is £1,290 (pro-rata for part-time employees) on all Spinal Column Points 1-43. For all locally determined pay points above the maximum of the pay spine, the pay award is 2.50 per cent. This 2.50 per cent uplift also applies to allowances.
When applying the new pay rates, some Scheme members will see an increase to their contribution rates. The Fund has checked the new rates against the 1 April 2024 Contribution Bands and have found the following change points (for Whole Time employees):
| Spinal Column Point | WTE Pay Rate at 01/04/2023 | 2024 Contribution Band Rate Before | WTE Pay Rate at 01/04/2024 | 2024 Contribution Band Rate After |
|---|
| 12 |
£26,421 |
Band 2 (5.80% Main (2.90% 50/50)) |
£27,711 |
Band 3 (6.50% Main (3.25% 50/50)) |
|---|
| 13 |
£26,873 |
Band 2 (5.80% Main (2.90% 50/50)) |
£28,163 |
Band 3 (6.50% Main (3.25% 50/50)) |
|---|
| 14 |
£27,334 |
Band 2 (5.80% Main (2.90% 50/50)) |
£28,624 |
Band 3 (6.50% Main (3.25% 50/50)) |
|---|
| 36 |
£44,428 |
Band 3 (6.50% Main (3.25% 50/50)) |
£45,718 |
Band 4 (6.80% Main (3.40% 50/50)) |
|---|
| 47* |
£55,669 |
Band 4 (6.80% Main (3.40% 50/50)) |
£57,061 |
Band 5 (8.50% Main (4.25% 50/50)) |
|---|
| 48* |
£56,766 |
Band 4 (6.80% Main (3.40% 50/50)) |
£58,185 |
Band 5 (8.50% Main (4.25% 50/50)) |
|---|
| 61* |
£78,275 |
Band 5 (8.50% Main (4.25% 50/50)) |
£80,232 |
Band 6 (9.90% Main (4.95% 50/50)) |
|---|
*Please note: the Spinal Column Points 47, 48 and 61 shown above are used by Staffordshire County Council and therefore may differ from the pay rates used in your organisation’s pay structure.
Please remember that the Contribution Bands are based on a Scheme member’s actual pay (if they are part time), so this does mean that not all Scheme members on these spinal column points will be affected. It could also mean that Scheme members working part time, on different grades, might also be impacted.
Within the LGPS regulations, it is at the employer’s discretion how often employees’ contributions are re-banded and how the employer will act where a late pay award is announced. You may choose to backdate any change in an employee’s contribution band to 1 April 2024, or alternatively you can decide only to apply the new rate from the date the pay award is actioned on the payroll. Your organisation may have a written policy in place on the allocation of contribution bands. This will be published in your Employer Pension Discretions Policy. If so, you may need to confirm with your payroll provider that their system will act in accordance with your policy.
f you are changing a Scheme member’s contribution band, you must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, inform the Scheme member of the new contribution rate and the date from which it is to be applied.
The Local Government Association (LGA) has recently published a new version of the employer FAQs on backdated pay awards (version 1.1) which cover the common questions that arise when you pay a backdatedpay award. Further information can also be found in the full HR Guide (section 10: Movements between contribution bands, page 25) on the National LGPS website.
All seven of the trigger points identified, are backdated to 1 April 2024 which may mean that a Scheme member will have to pay an increased pension contribution for the period 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025.
However, when applying the new contribution rates on 1 April 2024, in many cases, the Scheme member will return to their previous contribution banding. In this case, you must inform the Scheme member of both changes.
An employer may pay arrears to employees who have already left the scheme. If you are paying the backdated pay award to these members and are an i-Connect employer, these should be reported as follows:
- Should your initial extract file(s) include pay award arrears calculated for any records that have already previously been reported to us as leavers, please can these be separated from the main i-Connect file.
- These need to be emailed securely as a separate file to SPFData@staffordshire.gov.uk
- Please enter the title of the email as ‘Pay Award Arrears – (employer / payroll provider)’.
If you are not an i-Connect employer, Staffordshire Pension Fund will request revised pay information/leaver forms for members, where applicable.
We have recently updated the Microsoft Excel version of the leaver form (PEN LV 1) which is to be submitted when Scheme members leave the Fund. The latest form (version 12) can be downloaded from the employer’s area of our website
Please note: the Fund regularly reviews the forms that employers are required to complete. To ensure you are completing the most up to date forms you should download the latest forms from the employer section of the website rather than use local copies saved locally.
The Excel leaver form is suitable for on-screen completion. There are drop-down boxes for common pay elements and the reason for leaving. In addition, a separate notes tab is included which provides guidance on the completion of the leaver form and links to the LGPS HR and Payroll guides, as well as Notes about Final Pay.
We also currently provide a Microsoft Word version of the leaver form. However, it is our intention to withdraw this over the course of the next few months. Therefore, if you experience any issues when using the Excel leaver form, or if there are any improvements you would like us to make to the form, please contact us.
Please note: the forms and documents area of the website requires a username and password to access. If you have forgotten your login details, or if you don't currently have access to this area but need to do so as part of your responsibilities, then please contact pensions.employers@staffordshire.gov.uk
There have been a number of recent changes to the current panel of approved independent doctors for use by Scheme employers on ill health retirement, deferred benefit release referrals and stage 1 and stage 2 appeals. Two new IRMPs have been added, representing Innovate Healthcare. Furthermore, four doctors for Optima Health have been replaced.
Please can you ensure that you are using the up-to-date list for future ill health applications. The current approved panel of doctors can be obtained from the employers’ area of our website (username and password required). Alternatively, you can request copy from the Fund by contacting pensions.comms@staffordshire.gov.uk
IMPORTANT - Under Staffordshire Pension Fund’s Administering Authority Discretionary Policy we can only accept a Medical Certificate for Ill Health Retirement signed by an IRMP on the Fund’s approved list.
For cases where Scheme employers submit a Medical Certificate signed by a doctor who is not on the Fund’s approved IRMP list, we cannot accept the application and the paperwork will be returned to you to obtain a further Medical Certificate signed by an IRMP approved by the Fund. This will cause delays in process, additional work (and costs) for Scheme employers and the medical profession and also complaints from the individual Scheme members.
All Scheme employers have a legal requirement under the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) regulations to prepare and publish their employer's pension discretions.
This written policy will set out how you will apply certain discretions, including whether you will:
- allow flexible retirement,
- award additional pension,
- pay towards the cost of additional pension, and
- waive any reductions if your pension is paid early.
New employers must formulate their policy within three months of becoming an LGPS employer and all employers should keep their policies under review.
Note: Academies need their own policy but it’s acceptable to have one policy for Multi-Academy Trusts to cover all academies within that Trust.
We are aware that some employers have not published their pension discretionary policy. If you’re not sure whether you have submitted yours to us, please email: pensions.comms@staffordshire.gov.uk
To assist our employers to formulate and publish policies we have produced a template setting out the pensions discretions and factors you should consider.
The Local Government Association has also produced detailed employer discretions guidelines:
Please note failure to formulate and keep under review a discretions policy as required by the regulations is a breach and will be recorded as such for consideration by the Pension Fund as to whether it is material and should be referred to the Pensions Regulator. This could lead to fines or further action at a national level.
The Local Government Association have recently made some improvements to the tools and calculators on the national LGPS member website.
The existing Lump sum calculator has been improved. Scheme members can now use the calculator to:
- see the impact of taking a lump sum of any percentage from 1 percent to 25 percent of the value of their benefits. This was previously restricted to multiples of 5 percent.
- model the effect of taking AVC funds as cash.
Scheme members can also use the new Maximum AVC lump sum calculator to estimate the maximum amount they could take as cash from an AVC fund. If your organisation currently offers a Shared Cost AVC (SCAVC) arrangement via your employee benefits platform, this calculator may be of particular interest to your staff who may be considering applying for a new AVC plan, or those who wish to amend current payments.
On 16 October 2024, the Office for National Statistics announced the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation for September 2024 as 1.7 per cent.
Government policy in recent years has been to base increases under the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 and revaluation of pension accounts under Section 9 of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 on the rate of CPI in September of the previous year.
We await confirmation from Government that the revaluation and pensions increase that will apply to LGPS active pension accounts, deferred pensions and pensions in payment in April 2025 will be 1.7 per cent.
We would be grateful if you could continue to circulate this Newsletter to appropriate staff in your organisation for example, Human Resources, Payroll and Finance Department or alternatively provide us with their email address, so we can add them to our distribution list.
If you require any further information or clarification, please do not hesitate to email the Fund at pensions.comms@staffordshire.gov.uk