New Employer in the LGPS

Types of employer in the LGPS

Employers within the LGPS fall into three main categories and an employee’s eligibility to join the scheme depends upon which category their employer falls under. Scheme employers are listed in Schedule 2 of the LGPS regulations

• Scheduled Bodies – County Councils, District Councils, Police Authorities, Universities and Academies (including Free Schools and Studio Schools) are classed as Scheduled Bodies.
• Designated Bodies – Town and Parish Councils and entities under the control of Scheduled Bodies (including Local Authority Companies) are classed as Designated Bodies.
•  Admitted Bodies – Companies who taken on a contract to provide an outsourced service from an LGPS employer are classed as an Admitted Body.

New Academy (including Free Schools and Studio Schools)

Academies are classed as a scheduled body so have automatic right, and requirement, to be an employer in the LGPS covering their geographical area of Devon and Somerset. These employers must participate in the LGPS and do not have the option to offer an alternative pension arrangement. All staff are contractually, automatically enrolled into the LGPS from the first day of their employment.

• What we need you to do first
  • Inform Peninsula Pensions of the conversion, the name of the new academy/Multi Academy Trust (MAT) and the proposed date as soon as possible – there is no formal application for a school to become an eligible employer in the LGPS so it will automatically occur once you become an academy.
  • Provide a list of all the non-teaching staff at the school confirming if they are currently in the scheme or not using the staff data capture spreadsheet (see our TUPE and Admitted Bodies page).
  • Assure those employees already in the pension scheme that their membership will continue in the same way following conversion. Our web page TUPE Transfers – Implications for LGPS Members can help you with this.
  • Contact any eligible employees not in the LGPS at the time of transfer to advise them that they will be automatically contractually enrolled into the LGPS.
  • Obtain a copy of the new academy report to confirm the employer contribution rate.



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.

• 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.



Admitted Bodies

When an LGPS employer outsources a service, the new provider is required to seek admitted body status to enable staff to affected to remain in the LGPS or offer a broadly comparable scheme to them. If they become an admitted body, the transferred staff remain eligible for the LGPS whilst at least 50% of their time is spent on the delivery of the outsourced service. Depending on the terms of the admission agreement, other staff may be allowed to join (if they relate to the delivery of the outsourced service), this is known as an open admission agreement. If staff are not permitted to join, then it is known as a closed agreement.

These are bodies which participate in the LGPS under an ‘admission agreement’ – a contract between the body, the fund and usually another Scheme employer; they fall into two categories.

• Community Admission Bodies – these include organisations which have a ‘community of interest’ with a Scheme Employer, bodies which local authorities give grants to, housing corporations and bodies representative of local authorities and their officers.
• Transferee Admission Bodies – these include organisations which have contracted to take over a function of another scheme employer and many of their members will have transferred across under TUPE regulations.

• First Priorities - What you need to do first
  • Inform Peninsula Pensions of the date of transfer and provide a list of the staff involved in the transfer whether or not they are currently in the scheme using the staff data capture spreadsheet (see our TUPE and Admitted Bodies page).
  • Assure those employees already in the pension scheme that their membership will continue in the same way with the new employer. Our web page TUPE Transfers – Implications for LGPS Members can help you with this.
  • Contact any eligible employees not in the LGPS at the time of transfer to advise them that they will be automatically contractually enrolled into the LGPS (depending on your admission agreement)
  • Obtain a copy of the new employer report to confirm the employer contribution rate and bond amount required.

• Next steps for all employers
  • 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.

  Town and Parish Councils: 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.
  • Download the Employer Key Decisions form on our website and return the completed copy to the Employer and Communications Team as soon as possible.
  • 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.