Annual Employer PLOG Meetings

Next year's Annual Employer PLOG meetings are being arranged for:

• Tuesday 28th January 2020 at Taunton Racecourse
• Friday 31st January 2020 at Caddsdown Business Centre, North Devon
• Wednesday 5th February 2020 at Exeter Racecourse

The agenda has not yet been finalised so if you feel there are topics or issues which need to be addressed, please let us know here.

More details will be released in next month’s edition so watch this space!

Employer Self Service

Leavers forms
If a work activity has been created to ask you to submit another leaver form, please do not amend the form you have already loaded as this is not picked up by our team.

It is important that you upload another revised leaver form and submit another notification of leaver as stated in our guidance. If the process is not followed correctly, the leavers form will go unnoticed on the members record.

Work Activities
We are finding that some employers are using the work activities to reply to our requests, but this is not how it should be used - if a work activity has been created, we expect a revised leaver form to be uploaded or the Member Update of hours to be done. The comments provided within the work activities do not feed back into the members record.

Therefore, if you need to let us know that something needs to be changed and you are unable to make the change via ESS, please add some notes to the revised leaver form you submit.

Once you have dealt with our request, please remember to complete the work activity – there is guidance on our website here.

TPR launch re-enrolment tool for employers

The Pensions Regulator has launched a new tool to assist all employers to comply with their automatic re-enrolment duties. The tool is intended to simplify the re-enrolment process for you, ensuring that you  continue to meet your obligations.

Provision of Data

It is important that you put processes in place to retain access to historical payroll information when you change your payroll provider so that you can continue to fulfil your responsibilities as a Scheme employer.

Employers Website Survey

We are redeveloping the website to provide easier access to the relevant information you need and we would really appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to answer the following short survey.

The way we communicate and engage with employers is something we will be looking at next and Sophie Downer on our Systems Development team will be leading the project so keep an eye out for her emails and correspondence. We ask that all of you spare some time to respond to Sophie so that we can get a clear understanding of what works better for you.

Returning Officers

If you employ a Returning Officer, please could you email the Employer & Communications team confirming their full name, National Insurance Number, your employer name and Altair number (00123 for example). This is an annual exercise we run to ensure the records we hold are correct so we would be grateful if you could respond by 29th November.

Clerk to Governor’s

Thank you to all who provided us with the list of your Clerk to Governor posts. We will be working through the data and commencing a reconciliation exercise soon. Just to clarify, please ensure that any Clerk to Governors posts are recorded as working full-time with a part-time pay figure.

Member Self Service (MSS)

There is a leaflet on our website which summarises the information members can find when they log in to MSS so please feel free to share it with your employee’s.

TUPE’s & New Academies

If you are outsourcing services and have a number of staff who will be subject to TUPE and moving to a new employer or your school is converting to an Academy or moving MAT, please do not submit any leaver forms as this will complicate the process – instead there is a staff data capture spreadsheet you can complete on our website.

Keep us updated

Please remember to keep us updated with any changes in staff responsible for completing our forms (authorised signatories). This can be done by completing our via our online form.

You can also use this form to notify us of your IDRP Stage 1 Appeals Officer and any delegated authorised contacts.

Payment of Pension Fund Contributions

Please remember to inform us and the relevant Finance team each time you have paid your pension scheme contributions, by filling in the Monthly Contributions Form. If we receive the returns right away with the payments and they are correct - it makes the process so much easier, so please ensure that you build this form into your procedures.

If you are a Somerset Pension Fund employer, please contact the Corporate Finance Team for a copy of the Monthly Contribution Return: Corporatefinancepens@somerset.gov.uk

If you are a Devon Pension Fund Employer, you will need to use the online EAS5 form. If you have not already registered, a login can be obtained from the Employer and Communications Team.

Contacts

Employer & Communications  Team

Quick links

Employer Services (ESS) Guide

Peninsula Pensions Employers' Pages

Peninsula Pensions  Employers' Guide

Ill Health Retirement Guidance

Pensionable Pay Guidance

Assumed Pensionable Pay Guidance

IDRP Guidance

LGPS regulations and guidance

Fund Investments

LGPS National Website

Newsletters

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