Oxfordshire referred to TPR for a second time

The fund’s latest annual report states that the referral followed “a breach of the regulations in respect of the issuing of annual benefit statements to all active and deferred scheme members”.

According to the report, the fund filed “just over 50 per cent of the required annual benefit statements by the statutory deadline of August 31 2016”.

This represents an improvement in the fund’s compliance with regulation. In 2015, the fund failed to deliver any of its benefit statements by the statutory deadline.

In response to the referral, the fund has drawn up an ‘improvement plan’ in tandem with the regulator and its local pensions board. The scheme declined to comment.

The fund is looking to automate its data management processes as part of its administrative overhaul. At present, the scheme reviews its incoming data manually, “with returns being sent back or queried by exchange of emails”, according to fund documents.

The challenges of data standardisation grow with larger schemes, according to Iain Wilson, managing consultant at Punter Southall.

Wilson said: “There could well be a lot of quirks in the data and the membership, which would make things harder to standardise.”

While the organisation of such data might prove a challenge to a local government scheme, the implementation of automated systems should be relatively straightforward, he said.

The fund has held meetings with pensions administration technology provider Aquila Heywood, and is set to begin using its iConnect data management system.

“If as a pension provider you can receive data in a standard format across your pension scheme members, then actually bringing in automation is relatively simple,” he said.

Let the members serve themselves

Perhaps in response to concerns over data aggregation quality, the scheme is looking to roll out comprehensive self-service to active and deferred members.

The proposal will reduce the impact of poor scheme communication on members. Concerns were raised at an October 2016 meeting over scheme members who had not received their annual benefit statements.

The fund commenced self-service in April 2017, and 3,643 pensioners, comprising 23 per cent of the membership, participated in logging and amending their own data. Beneficiaries have so far made over 800 data adjustments.

Tim Middleton, technical consultant at the Pensions Management Institute, welcomed the move, which represents a rejection of “the traditional way of doing things”.

“It’s more efficient and keeps costs down. The records that they hold are going to be more accurate, so it’s a win-win situation.”

Self-service is yet to become widespread across the LGPS landscape, according to Middleton.

Meet your employers

The Oxfordshire Pension Fund Local Pension Board has noted the difficulties employers have faced over the submission of their annual contribution returns. The board is looking to organise training sessions and receive feedback from employers.

The failure of employers “to produce timely and accurate returns” in part prevented the fund from issuing the required annual benefit statements by the August 31 deadline, the scheme’s annual report states.

David Davison, director at consultancy Spence & Partners, said that attitudes towards submitting annual contribution returns among employers tend to vary depending on their size.

Davison emphasised the importance of educating employers on how to submit information in a clear and “preferably electronic way”.

The fund would appear to have ground to make up on its contemporaries, according to Davison.

“The [schemes] I’ve dealt with don’t seem to have this sort of issue, they seem to be collecting the information much more regularly, much more consistently and much more on time,” he said.