LGPS Employee contribution bands 2021/22

Our website has been updated with the employee bandings effective from 1 April 2021. They are calculated by increasing the 2020/21 employee contribution bands by the September 2020 CPI figure of 0.5 per cent and then rounding down the result to the nearest £100.

Employer PLOG 2021

This year’s PLOG will be held remotely this year on Tuesday 30th March 2021 starting at 10:00am with an expected finish time of 11.30am. Please complete this form to confirm you would like to attend and we will send you a meeting invite two weeks before the event with all the details.

Digital signature function added to APC application form

The APC application form on the additional pension contribution (A P C) calculator has been updated to allow applicants to enter a digital signature and date. Applicants have the option of either: 

• downloading and printing a pdf document that they can sign by hand
• entering a digital signature and date;

the document can then be emailed straight to the employer / administering authority, as appropriate. 

Devon Pension Fund Monthly Contributions EAS5 Form

In recent months a number of employers have not been submitting the monthly contributions EAS5 form and we have many payments outstanding. Please can we remind you that this must be done and ask that you include this in your monthly processes.

You no longer need to log in to access the EAS5 form with the launch of the new website. We understand that some of you may have bookmarked an old link and are having problems with access so here’s the direct link to the EAS5 form.

Redundancy/Strain Costs Estimates

Further to the Pensions Line Special sent last week regarding the revocation/postponement of the Exit cap legislation, we are currently awaiting further guidance, for as we are to understand, another set of revised factors for the calculation of the strain costs. Therefore we have had to put all of the employer strain costs on hold as we are unable to confirm how much the strain cost will be.

We understand that further updates are due in the next 2 weeks at which time if we are in a position to calculate the any outstanding estimates requests or switch the facility back on within Employer Self Service (ESS), we will do as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused but we hope you will understand we have been impacted on forces outside of our control.

Assumed Pensionable Pay

You must provide us with Assumed Pensionable Pay (APP) figures to ensure a member’s pension is not affected by any reduction to, or suspension of, pensionable pay due to a period of absence. There is some guidance on our website and the Local Government Association have updated the Payroll  Guide on their website to include the details about the calculation of APP

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 any authorised delegated contacts, your IDRP Stage 1 Appeals Officer, your Payroll Provider, your contact for Interfaces and to sign up to our employer newsletter Pensions Line

Change of Payroll Provider & Provision of Data

It is important that you contact the Employer & Communications Team if you are changing your payroll provider. We can then work with you to ensure you put processes in place to retain access to historical payroll information and continue to fulfil your responsibilities as a Scheme employer.

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. 

TUPEs & 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.

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