New Town and Parish Councils in the LGPS
Under LGPS regulations Town and Parish Councils are known as Designation Bodies (formerly Resolution Bodies). These employers can choose an employee or post, or a class of employees, as being eligible to join the LGPS and they must then be brought into the scheme automatically.
In order to participate, you will need to pass a resolution to state that you wish to offer the LGPS as a pension scheme. The resolution will need to designate the employees to be eligible for membership and state who is permitted to join – individuals can be named although it may be advisable to use post titles instead so that a new designation is not needed each time someone leaves. The resolution would be agreed at a meeting and we will need of the minutes for our records.
Any staff who are employed in each post designated within the minutes will have the option to join the LGPS and can do so by completing an opt-in form. The form then needs to be sent to your payroll provider to commence the deduction of pension scheme contributions and a copy will need to be sent to us once you have submitted a Starter form. Any new staff who become later employed within those designated posts should be automatically contractually enrolled into the LGPS.
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First priorities - What you need to do first
- Send Peninsula Pensions a copy of the meeting minutes confirming the designated posts and the date of admission to the LGPS.
- Once admission is approved, contact all eligible employees named in the resolution to let them know they have the option to join the LGPS and provide a link to the opt-in form on our Join the Scheme page.
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Next steps
- Obtain your new employer number from Peninsula Pensions
- Decide the percentage of pay each employee must pay into the LGPS in accordance with the relevant bandings on our Your Contributions page.
- Inform your payroll provider of the employer’s and employee’s contribution rates:
- Employee contributions are deducted from an employee’s actual pensionable pay in accordance with the relevant banding on our Your Contributions Page.
- The Employer contribution rate will be specified in the new employer or academy report or can be confirmed by the fund’s Investment team.
- Automatically enrol all eligible staff into the LGPS – there are some staff who are not eligible to join the LGPS so please refer to our New employee and scheme member guidance to see which staff are eligible for automatic enrolment.
Action staff elections to join the LGPS – you can backdate the commencement of membership to the date of resolution
- Arrange for your employer and employee contributions to be paid to the pension fund on time each month in accordance with the instructions on our website and complete the monthly contribution form
Make a payment to the Devon Pension Fund
Make a payment to the Somerset Pension Fund
- Complete our online Employer Contact Details form as soon as possible to confirm the following:
- Confirm Contact Details – Pensions forms need to be ‘signed off’ or submitted by authorised signatories so that we know who to contact with any queries and who will be registered as authorised contacts.
- Confirm Authorised Delegated Contacts (if applicable) – We do not deal directly with payroll providers, but you can delegate some or all daily administration to them. The details authorise Peninsula Pensions to accept data and completed pensions forms directly from your payroll provider. The responsibility for the timely and accurate provision of data and contributions remains with you as the employer.
- Confirm Name of Payroll Provider – We would appreciate it if you could confirm your payroll provider for our records.
- Confirm IDRP Stage 1 Appeals Officer Form – You will need to nominate an appeals officer to deal with Stage 1 of the Internal Disputes Resolution Procedure (IDRP) if a member has made a complaint against a decision that the employer has made.
- Sign up to our employer newsletter Pensions Line – our e-zine which keeps you updated with changes to legislation and procedures along with notification of training events and any other information we think you will find useful. Please confirm the names and email addresses of anyone who needs to receive our newsletter and we will add them to our mailing list,
- Appoint an Independent Registered Medical Practitioner (IRMP) to assess ill health retirement applications and decide the appropriate “tier” for ill health. Please refer to our Ill Health Retirement Guide for Employers for more information.
- Confirm any New Starters who weren’t involved in the transfer or listed in the designation via the approved monthly interface template – please see the New Employer and Scheme member page.
- Formulate and publish your Pensions Discretions Policy and provide a copy to Peninsula Pensions.
- Inform your members of:
- Our website which has lots of information relevant to members of the LGPS.
- Member Self Service via our website where they can get up-to-date information on their pension.
- Contact our Employer and Communications Team to arrange training on your responsibilities as an employer within the LGPS and what you need to do.
Please refer to the Employer Guidance section of our website for everything you need to know about the LGPS and what you need to do.
Please refer to the Employer Guidance section of our website for everything you need to know about the LGPS and what you need to do.