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 (Northern Ireland) 2007

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 (Northern Ireland) 2007

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 (Northern Ireland) 2007

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 (Northern Ireland) 2007.

 

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