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STATISTICS |
Administration of the Pension Scheme
The scheme is funded by contributions made by both employees and
employers who have been admitted to the Scheme. Employee contribution rates have been fixed at either 5% or 6% of
their pensionable remuneration, while employer contribution rates are
determined by the Scheme’s actuary every three years. A prior surplus position had allowed employer contribution rates
to remain at 4.6% up to 31 March 2005, with any employers admitted to the
Scheme after 1 April 1999 paying a higher rate dependant on the prevailing
employer contribution rate at the time of admission.
Following the results of the 2004 actuarial valuation, the
Committee introduced a series of stepped employer contribution increases with
effect from 1 April 2005.
|
Employers Admitted |
1 April 05 – 31 March 06 |
1 April 06 – 31 march 07 |
1 April 07 – March 08 |
|
Before 1 April 1999 |
8.5% |
11% |
13% |
|
After 1 April 1999 and before 31 March 2002 |
12% |
13% |
13% |
|
After 31 March 2002 |
13% |
13% |
13% |
Status
The Scheme is a statutory
public service pension scheme as defined by the Pensions Schemes Act (Northern
Ireland) 1993 and is regulated by the Local Government Pension Scheme (Northern
Ireland) Regulations 2002.
As a public service pension
scheme, the Scheme is contracted out of the State Second Pension (S2P) and is a
registered public service scheme under Chapter 2 of Part 4 of the Finance Act
2004. Full tax relief is granted on
members’ and employers’ contributions paid to the Fund on all United Kingdom
investment income other than dividends arising from UK equities.
Membership
The scheme continued to grow during 2007/08 both in terms of
admitted bodies and individual employees.
At 31 March 2008, there were 204 employing authorities
contributing to the NILGOSC Scheme. A
full list of these organisations can be found on pages 63 to 65. Two new bodies were approved for admission
to the Scheme during the year ended 31 March 2008:
|
Employing Authority |
Effective Date |
|
Middletown Centre for Autism |
1
April 2007 |
|
Hochtief Facility Management |
29 February 2008 |
Membership of the scheme also increased during the year and at 31 March 2008 the Scheme consisted of 43,280 contributing members, 23,483 pensioners and 15,953 deferred pensioners.
The chart below shows the increase in each category of member over
the past 8 years:
Pension Increase
During the year, NILGOSC pensions were increased by 3.6%, with effect from 9 April 2007. All pensions (including spouses’ pensions, children’s pensions, age pensions, ill-health pensions, redundancy pensions provided the pensioner is aged 55 or over and preserved benefits) are index-linked and increased each year in line with inflation, as measured by the Retail Price Index.
The Government determines this increase each year by way of the Pensions Increase (Review) Order and this year’s figure reflected the annual increase in the Retail Prices Index for the year ending 30 September 2006.
New Regulations
The following new regulations were made during 2007/08;
Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (
These regulations were made on 29th August 2007 and
annulled by the Assembly on 1st October 2007.
Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment No. 3) Regulations (
The above regulations came into operation on 1 December 2007 and
provided, retrospectively, to 6th April 2006 for the removal of the 40 year
limit on total membership. The amending regulations increased the maximum
period by which an employer can augment membership from 6 years 243 days to 10
years, effective from 6th April 2007. The regulations concerning Additional
Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) were amended to restrict the maximum amount a
member can contribute to 50 per cent of the remuneration of that employment and
required that AVCs must be deducted directly from pay with effect from 6th
April 2008.
Local
Government Pension Scheme (Amendment No. 4) Regulations (
The
second set of amending regulations came into operation on 1 January 2008 and made
provision for the payment of an allowance to Committee members of the Northern
Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee (NILGOSC) and
formally revoked the Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment No. 2)
Regulations (
Satisfaction Survey
A stakeholder satisfaction survey was carried
out in March 2008. This year over 600
questionnaires were issued to a random sample of employers, pensioners,
deferred pensioners and members of the scheme.
The survey focused on quality of performance in several key areas,
quality of publications, preferred methods of communication and the response to
queries. Despite a response rate of
only 32%, satisfaction levels ranged from 89% of deferred members to 97% of
pensioners being satisfied or very satisfied with the service they
received. Overall, the survey returned
an average satisfaction rating of 95% (2006/2007 95%). The Committee was pleased with the results
of the survey, which demonstrated that a high level of satisfaction continued
to be maintained throughout 2007/08.
Performance Standards
In May 1997 the Management Committee approved a set of service standards for the activities carried out by the Committee. These standards are reviewed annually and monitored by the Committee. Compliance with the performance standards for 2007/08 was tested by the internal auditor, ASM Howarth, on a random sample basis.
Below is a summary of the standards achieved during 2007/08.
|
Task |
Standard |
Within |
|
|
|
|
Standard % |
|
|
Lump sum retirement
payments |
5 days |
82% |
|
|
Death grant payments |
5 days |
76% |
|
|
Leaver options
notifications |
20 days |
23% |
|
|
Refund payments |
10 days |
97% |
|
|
Provisional transfer out
quotations |
20 days |
73% |
|
|
Transfer out payments |
10 days |
94% |
|
|
Inward transfer
quotation requests |
10 days |
83% |
|
|
Inward transfer credit
notifications |
20 days |
100% |
|
|
New entrants
certificates |
20 days |
80% |
|
|
Letters answered or
acknowledged |
10 days |
92% |
|
|
Issue members' annual
report |
by 30 November |
100% |
|
|
Issue members' annual
benefit statement |
by 31 October |
44%* |
|
|
Benefit quotation
requests |
10 days |
86% |
|
|
Pensions paid each month |
Last banking day of month |
92% |
|
|
P60s issued to all
pensioners |
By 31 May |
100% |
|
*91% of annual benefit statements were issued by 1 November 2007
Cost per Member
Despite a continuing increase in scheme membership, NILGOSC has managed to keep a constant cost per member in real terms. The table below shows administration expenses per scheme member, together with the ratio of members to staff.
|
Year ended |
Total |
Number |
Members/ |
Admin Expenses |
Cost/ Member |
Cost adjusted for |
|
31 March |
Members |
Of Staff |
Staff |
£’000 |
£ |
Inflation £ |
|
1998 |
52,934 |
26 |
2036 |
993 |
18.75 |
24.08 |
|
1999 |
54,315 |
28 |
1940 |
977 |
17.98 |
25.45 |
|
2000 |
55,983 |
28 |
2000 |
993 |
17.74 |
24.25 |
|
2001 |
63,872 |
30 |
2129 |
1,227 |
19.21 |
26.22 |
|
2002 |
66,643 |
33 |
2019 |
1,288 |
19.32 |
26.13 |
|
2003 |
68,936 |
36 |
1915 |
1,495 |
21.69 |
26.01 |
|
2004 |
71,399 |
40.5 |
1763 |
1,685 |
23.60 |
26.16 |
|
2005 |
73,995 |
41 |
1805 |
1,835 |
24.80 |
25.95 |
|
2006 |
74,688 |
43 |
1737 |
1,771 |
23.71 |
26.57 |
|
2007 |
78,511 |
41 |
1915 |
2,032 |
25.87 |
26.84 |
|
2008 |
82,716 |
41 |
2017 |
2,062 |
24.94 |
24.94 |