The Director, West Yorkshire Pension Fund, will present a report

(Document “C”) which informs Members that, in accordance with the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, from April 2015, all Public Service Pension Schemes come under the remit of the Pensions Regulator.

Section 70 of the Pensions Act 2004 (the Act) imposes a requirement to report a matter to the Pensions Regulator as soon as it is reasonably practicable where that person has reason cause to believe that:

(a)  A legal duty relating to the administration of the scheme has not been or is not being complied with, and

(b)  The failure to comply is likely to be of material significance to the Pensions Regulator in the exercise of any of its functions.

A register of Breaches of Law is, therefore, maintained in accordance with the Pension’s Regulators requirements and WYPF Breaches procedures.  

Recommended –

That the entries on the Register of Breaches of Law be noted. 

(Caroline Blackburn – 01274 434523)

Resolved –

That the entries on the Register of Breaches of Law be noted. 

ACTION: Director, West Yorkshire Pension Fund

Director, West Yorkshire Pension Fund, presented a report

(Document “C”) which informed Members that, in accordance with the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, all Public Service Pension Schemes now came under the remit of the Pensions Regulator.

Section 70 of the Pensions Act 2004 (the Act) imposed a requirement to report a matter to the Pensions Regulator as soon as it was reasonably practicable where that person had reason to believe that:

(a)  A legal duty relating to the administration of the scheme had not been or was not being complied with, and

(b)  The failure to comply was likely to be of material significance to the Pensions Regulator in the exercise of any of its functions.

A register of any breaches of the Pensions Code of Practice was maintained in accordance with the WYPF Breaches Procedure.  The Register of Breaches 2018/19 and 2019/20 were appended to Document “C”.  Those documents revealed that that since April 2019 there had been only one late payment.  In September 2018 one employer had been reported to the Pensions Regulator (tPR) for late payments.  That employer had now ceased all contracts in the fund and outstanding payments had been received.

With the exception of the issue reported to the tPR it was reported that all entries on the register were not felt to be of material significant but the views of Members were requested. 

The requirement for all annual benefits statements to be provided to each active member by 31 August was discussed.  The report revealed that 99.6% of statements had been despatched by that deadline.  It would not be possible to meet the target of 100% because of continual changes to member contact details. 

Measures taken to ensure members were aware of pension procedures were raised and in response to questions it was clarified that each employer would have a staff member who was responsible for pension fund issues.   WYPF’s contact centre was also able to assist.  A pension information pack was also circulated to all retiring members; all information was provided in plain English and a pensions newsletter was regularly circulated.  The procedure for dealing with members who became incapacitated was also explained.

It was questioned if Annual Benefit Statements were processed in alphabetical order and it was clarified that they were despatched in fund order.

Lessons learned following an employer being reported to tPR were questioned and it was asked if steps could be made to exclude those employers from the fund.  In response it was explained that WYPF could not prevent employers who were entitled from joining the fund.  Questions were asked of firms letting contracts to ascertain if there had been any issues with government regulation and issues should come to the attention of the fund at that time.  It was confirmed that fines were imposed on employers making late payments.

A Trade Union representative enquired as to how long it would take for an employer to join the Fund.  He was advised that the timescale would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6