On the go: Ninety-nine per cent of active members of the Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund have received a 2017-18 annual benefit statement, following regulatory intervention after no annual statements were issued for 2014-15.
A report published by the watchdog showed that its engagement with the local authority pension fund – which has over 20,000 active members – led to significant scheme governance and administration improvements.
Public service pension schemes must provide annual benefit statements to active members within five months of the end of the scheme’s financial year.
In September 2015, the scheme manager sent the regulator a breach of law report to inform the watchdog that no annual statements had been issued to members for 2014-15.
The scheme manager said the lack of statements was down to poor data, with employers failing to submit accurate data and employment histories.
Having informed the regulator, the scheme manager created a measurable data improvement plan, which also covered the wider administration and governance of the pension fund.
However, despite some progress, “we remained sufficiently concerned about the speed of improvement for us to consider enforcement action”, according to the watchdog's regulatory intervention report.
The scheme manager said they would rectify the breaches and prevent them happening again, but failed to do so.
This lead to the regulator issuing a warning notice in May last year, including a draft of the improvement notice it planned to issue. This type of notice asks a scheme manager or trustee to complete certain steps or rectify problems, or to stop taking inappropriate actions, within a specified timescale.
The improvement notice was issued in August. By December 31 2018 the scheme manager had issued over 99 per cent of annual benefit statements for the 2017-18 year.
Throughout the process, the regulator said the scheme manager worked with the watchdog in an open manner and looked for ways to ameliorate scheme governance and administration issues – from boosting staff numbers to outsourcing work where necessary.
Nicola Parish, TPR’s executive director of frontline regulation, said: “Oxfordshire’s inability to issue benefit statements in 2015 was due to poor data and the challenges they faced to improve it. We clearly set out our expectations and worked with them to improve their data. This has resulted in the vast majority of the fund’s 20,000 active members receiving the benefit statements they are entitled to.”
Where a scheme manager holds poor member data, the regulator expects them to produce a measurable data-improvement plan. It expects them to have appropriate controls in place and use their powers to manage employers who are not co-operative in fulfilling their duties.
