Employer Charging Policy

Ensuring compliance with the LGPS and Disclosure of Information regulations is the responsibility of the Fund and employers even where the payroll service is outsourced.

The Fund and employers will ensure that all functions and tasks are carried out to agreed standards.

The Fund will monitor performance against the PAS on an ongoing basis and will liaise with employers in relation to any concerns. The Fund reports its own performance to the Pension Fund Committee (PFC) on a quarterly basis against internal key performance indicators. Employers performance measured against the standards set out in the PAS will also be reported to the PFC. The Fund also monitors and reports on data quality in line with the Pension Regulator’s Code of Practice 14.

The following shows the regulatory timescales for providing information and notifications to the Fund.

New starters (New Membership Form/i-Connect return)

• Within one month of starting employment.

Change in member’s details (Change of Employee’s Personal Details or Hours form)

• Within six weeks of the event.

Leavers (Leaver Form/i-Connect return)

• Within six weeks of the date of leaving.

Advanced Notification of Retirement (ADNOT)

• As early as possible but at least 30 days before the last day of employment.

Retirements (Leaver Form/i-Connect return)

• No later than one month following retirement.

Disclosure Regulations require that when a retirement takes place before Normal Pension Age (NPA) the NYPF must receive the Leaver Form no later than one month after the date of retirement. Where a retirement takes place on or after NPA, the NYPF must receive the Leaver Form/i-Connect return no more than 20 days after the date of retirement.

Death in Service

• Within three working days of the employer being notified of the death of the member.

Contributions

• In addition, employers must make both employee and employer contributions to the Fund, in accordance with the rates and adjustment certificate. All monies due to the Fund in respect of employees and employers contributions must be cleared in the Fund’s bank account by the 19th of the month (or the last working day before where the 19th is not a working day) following the month the contributions relate to. The regulations require that all payments made to the Fund must be accompanied by a statement. The employer must email a monthly return to pension.contributions@northyorks.gov.uk, in advance of their payment. This includes employers who provide monthly administration data via i-Connect. Where persistent and ongoing issues occur and no improvement is demonstrated by the employer, and/or no willingness is shown by the employer to resolve the identified issues further action will be taken as detailed in this policy.

The LGPS regulations enable pension funds to recover any additional costs associated with the administration of the scheme incurred because of poor performance by an employer (including the administering authority). It is the Fund’s policy to do this to ensure that other employers do not incur higher administration costs or loss of investment return because of an individual employer’s poor performance.

The Fund’s policy is to chase outstanding information on a regular basis as follows:

• Original request issued (no charge).
• The first chaser will be issued 10 working days after the date of the original request and this will trigger the first charge.
• A further two chasers will be issued 10 working days apart and will incur a charge for each chaser (so one original request and three chasers in total).
• Case will be escalated to the Pensions Management Team who will issue a final chaser which will clarify the regulatory requirements including reporting to the Pensions Regulator. This will also incur a charge.
• If no response is received within 10 working days the Pensions Employer Relationship Manager will make contact to discuss an improvement plan.

The Fund will issue employers with contribution spreadsheets at the start of each financial year which sets out when the payments and accompanying information is due, in line with the PAS. The Fund’s policy is to chase any late payments or accompanying documentation one month after the due date at which point the first charge will be triggered. For each subsequent month that the payment or information is still outstanding additional charges will be applied as per the charging scales.

A quarterly invoice will be issued to the employer detailing any additional costs, taking account of time and resources in resolving the issues, in accordance with the charging scale set out in this policy. A report will be presented to the quarterly PFC meeting detailing charges levied against employers and outstanding payments.

The frequency of charging will be monitored and where significant volumes are identified, the Fund will contact the employer concerned and offer support and guidance. Working collaboratively with the Fund the employer will be expected to identify and agree the following:

• Training requirements
• A robust and measurable improvement plan.
• Regular contact with the Pensions Employer Relationship Manager to provide progress updates against the data improvement plan.
• Clear milestones
• Accountabilities
• Appropriate internal monitoring is put in place.
• Timescales

If poor performance continues which affects the Fund’s ability to perform its statutory functions, or the employer is not taking steps to improve its performance, the Fund will be required to report the employer to the Pensions Regulator.

If an employer fails to pay any amount due to the Fund (other than monthly contributions) within 30 days, interest for late payment will be charged at 1% above the bank base rate.

The Fund reserves the right to suspend charging for all or specific employers, if deemed appropriate, e.g. during a pandemic or where the application of charges would cause undue financial hardship.

The following shows what the Fund will charge for, the charge and the charge code:

Starter information

• Chase for missing information where one request has already been made; £5.00 per record, per chase. Code C1.
• Chase for missing information or incorrect information to be corrected where one request has already been made; £5.00 per record, per chase.  Code C2.

Employer estimate

• Chase for missing information or incorrect information to be corrected where one request has already been made; £5.00 per record, per chase. Code C13.

Advanced Notification of Retirement (ADNOT)

• Chase for missing form where one request has already been made; £5.00 per record, per chase.  Code C5.
• Chase for missing information or incorrect information to be corrected where one request has already been made; £5.00 per record, per chase. Code C6.

Death in service

• Chase for missing final pay information (leaver form or i-Connect) where one request has already been made; £10.00 per record, per chase.  Code C7.
• Chase for missing information or incorrect information to be corrected where one request has already been made; £5.00 per record, per chase. Code C8.

Leaver information

• Chase for missing final leaver information (leaver form or i-Connect) where one request has already been made; £10.00 per record, per chase. Code C3.
• Chase for missing information or incorrect information to be corrected where one request has already been made; £5.00 per record, per chase.  Code C4.

Employer authorisation (ill health and redundancy/efficiency)

• Request for missing employer authorisation; £10.00 per record, per chase. Code C9.
• Request for missing cost codes (NYC only); £10.00 per record, per chase. Code C10.

Data

• Post information: chase for missing or incorrect information where one request has already been made e.g. hours, service etc. £5.00 per record, per chase. Code C11.
• Pay information: chase for missing or incorrect information where one request has already been made. £5.00 per record, per chase. Code C12.

i-Connect

• Failure to use i-Connect to submit monthly data (charged by the number of pensionable members held on the Fund’s database). £5.00 per record charged at year end.
• Failure to submit monthly data by the agreed deadline. A charge will apply for each full month the file is delayed beyond  its due date.

Number of pensionable members
1 to 99: £50.00 per file
100 to 999: £100.00 per file
1,000 to 1,999: £200.00 per file
2,000 to 4,999: £300.00 per file
5,000 to 9,999: £400.00 per file
10,000 or more: £500.00 per file

Year End

• Failure to submit year end file by 30th April (charged by the number of pensionable members held on the NYPF database). *The below charges will apply for each full month the file is delayed beyond 30th April.

1 to 99: £50.00 per file
100 to 999: £100.00 per file
1,000 to 1,999: £200.00 per file
2,000 to 4,999: £300.00 per file
5,000 to 9,999: £400.00 per file
10,000 or more: £500.00 per file

• The following charges will also apply.

Incorrect file formatting: £5.00 per record
Missing or incorrect data: £5.00 per record
Reason for pay changes outside of tolerances not given: £5.00 per record
Missing starter and leaver information:£5.00 per record

Subsequent chasers will be charged at £2.50 per chase, per record.

If an employer annual return is received by 30th April and the return is accepted, no charge will apply.
If the annual return is received by 30th April and the return is rejected but subsequently re-submitted and accepted within two weeks, no charge will apply.

Monthly contributions
The following charges will apply for each full month the file is delayed beyond it’s due date.

• Charge for late payment: £100 per file plus a daily interest surcharge for the period the payment is outstanding of 1% above the bank base rate.
• Charge for late submission of supporting documentation: £100 per file.

Accounting

• IAS19/FRS102 valuations: Professional fees recharged where late information is provided by the employer. Cost will be notified prior to work starting.

Actuarial & legal advice

• Actuarial & legal advice for admission bodies and academy conversions: Professional fees recharged. Cost will be notified prior to work starting.

Technical Advice

• Ad hoc technical advice, (where recharging is deemed appropriate because the advice is not of general benefit to the Fund overall): Professional fees recharged. Cost will be notified prior to work starting.

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