August 2022

National Pensions Awareness Day 15th September 2022

Following our August Special edition sent out last week, expressing our support for the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Associations 2022 Autumn campaign – “Pay your pension some attention”, we have created a dedicated page on our website Pay Your Pension Some Attention - Peninsula Pensions. Please share the link with your employee’s and help us spread the word.

We would also like you as an employer to take some time out on 15^th September to check in on pensions to refresh your knowledge on regulations, processes, Employer Self Service and double check we have the correct contacts for you. 

Please visit the dedicated Employers section on our website where you can find all our guidance:  

Employer Guidance - Peninsula Pensions

An employer's guide to the Local Government Pension Scheme - Peninsula Pensions

Employer Duties - Peninsula Pensions – Checklist of the weekly/monthly/annual information you need to send to us, e.g.; CARE data, hour changes and the Monthly Contributions Form (EAS5)

Employer Focus Sessions - Peninsula Pensions

Keep us updated - Peninsula Pensions

Key dates - Peninsula Pensions

Retiring from active status: the process - Peninsula Pensions – please ensure this link is available to members on your intranets or if you send leaver letters out, please include the link within that information to manage members expectations.

Please share the Pay Your Pension Some Attention and the Retiring from active status webpages with your members and take some time out to check in on pensions to refresh your knowledge.

Assumed Pensionable Pay

We understand that some of you struggle with the calculation of assumed pensionable pay (APP), when it is needed and the difference between APP for an absence and the APP figure you need to provide on the leaver form for the enhancement for Tier 1 and Tier 2 Ill health and Death in Service cases.

We do have some guidance on our website so please have a look at that along with the LGPS Employers guidance What is Assumed Pensionable Pay? And their Employers Bitesize Training videos.

Employer focus sessions

Our next topic is the Employer Pensions Discretions policy and will include why you need one and explain each required discretion in a little more detail. The session will be held on Thursday 15th September 2022 starting at 10:30pm with an expected finish time of 11:30am.

Please register your interest by submitting this form. If you are not involved in the creation or review of the discretions policy, please feel free to forward the invitation on to a colleague who deals with this area. We look forward to seeing you there.

Pension Administration Reminders:

Annual Allowance 2021/22 - Please remember to provide your scheme members information for the required annual allowance exercise by 5^th July 2022. Please revisit the April edition of the Pensions Line for more information.

Alternative Leaver form - Do you receive work activities stating the ESS leaver form is blank? If so, there is an alternative leaver process for employers who do not currently download and re-upload the leaver form on the same day. A template form is available for you to complete and arrange for checking/sign off ahead of uploading to ESS. Then when the leaver form is ready to be made live on ESS, the alternative leaver form is created so that you can copy and paste the details from the template to the ESS version. If you think this process might work better for you, please contact Emma Davies who will provide more details. 

Keep us updated with any changes in staff responsible for completing our forms and submitting pension data (authorised signatories) via our online form.

If you are changing your Payroll Provider, please contact the Employer & Communications Team so that we can help you through the process and make sure you retain access to historical payroll information.

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.

TUPEs & New Academies – please do not submit any leavers forms if you are outsourcing services and have a number of staff who will be subject to TUPE or your school is converting to an Academy or moving Trusts. Instead, you will need to follow the process on our website.

Useful Links

Peninsula Pensions Employers' Pages

LGPS regulations and guidance

Fund Investments

LGPS National Website

Employer & Communications Team Mailbox

Previous editions of Pensions Line

Peninsula Pensions
Great Moor House
Bittern Road
Sowton Industrial Estate
Exeter EX2 7NL
Tel: 01392 383000
Peninsula Pensions is provided by Devon County Council and is a shared service with Somerset County Council