Scottish pensions authority ups staff by 10% to cope with reform

The number of full-time employees at the Scottish Public Pensions Agency is expected to reach 250 by next year, a spokesperson for the government said. The increase is due to increased workloads and the need to meet a 2015 deadline for the changes, which include a shift to a career average scheme design.

The SPPA said it was necessary to ensure "consistent and coherent approaches" across the five schemes, which include the National Health Service in Scotland and the Scottish Teachers’ Superannuation Scheme – for which it administers the benefits of a further 145,000 pensioners – to meet the deadline.

"At the same time, the administration of existing pension schemes is becoming more efficient as the SPPA continues to meet challenging performance targets and improves services to scheme members," the spokesperson added.

Dealing with a bigger workload

The uplift was revealed in the recently published minutes of the authority’s April external management board meeting, which recorded that the government’s director of financial strategy Colin Maclean "advised care to be taken in how the extra staff requirement was presented".

The minutes continued: "It should be made clear that this was as a direct result of the considerable additional work generated by the pension reform agenda."

John Wright, head of public sector at consultancy Hymans Robertson, said systems will have to be designed that work for old benefits and the new design, creating a “lot of extra work” for schemes.

"It is very important to make sure that there is good communication with members, so that the members know how they will be affected," he added.

Paul Middleman, a principal for public sector pensions at consultancy Mercer, said a short-term rise in staff was to be expected, but the bump in numbers should drop off after schemes and councils become accustomed to any new rules. 

"I know from first-hand experience that a lot of councils [in England] are committed to minimising these costs and are striving to collaborate with other local authorities to ensure this happens," he added. 

But Mike Taylor, chief executive of the London Pension Fund Authority, said he had not experienced or heard about this kind of increase in staff at English or Welsh authorities, where changes come into force a year earlier, in 2014.

"Even then I cannot envisage seeing an increase of 10 per cent to staffing levels at an authority. I can't see why you would need to [scale up to that extent]," he said.