Employer Data Quality Guide
Contents
Introduction
Peninsula Pensions is undertaking a Data Quality exercise for all Pension Fund employers. In accordance with the Pension Regulator specification, this involves a series of checks to validate the personal and financial data held on our records for all active members of the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Once this process is complete, if you are not already sending data electronically to us on a monthly basis, we will formally request that you do so. This will be in respect of all new starters, hour changes, member amendments (names and addresses), service breaks and CARE Pensionable Pay.
What we will do
We will provide you with a report detailing the individual active employment records we hold, highlighting any areas which require attention. This may simply be a missing address or payroll reference, or a CARE Pay figure that requires more detailed investigation.
The Systems team will work through the report prior to sending it to you, resolving any issues we can quickly identify ourselves and those which would seem to have resulted from an internal oversight. This should allow you to concentrate on identifying and rectifying the data issues which we are currently unaware of.
Areas for analysis:
- Temporary NI Numbers
- Missing starters and leavers
- Missing Payroll References
- FTE salaries and dates – appearance and values within set parameters
- CARE Pay – appearance and values within set parameters
- Hours worked – ensure the hours for all part-time and casual employments are up-to-date
- Home addresses
Although the report we will send you highlights various issues, you should not assume that these are the only issues within the data. Highlighted cells result from an automated standard error checking process, which cannot hope to identify every conceivable issue with the data we hold. You are therefore encouraged to check that every record on the report matches that held within your own records.
This exercise will not replace the Annual Return, but we hope will improve that process by working to reduce the number of potential queries arising.
What you need to do
Please reconcile the list against your records to ensure we hold all the relevant member records and provide any missing starters, leavers, amendments or hour changes using either the on-line Employer Services facility or via the use of our interface templates. If you only have a few minor amendments to make, feel free to return the edited report to us with the changes clearly marked.
Interfaces should be sent to the Pensions Interfaces mailbox, while amended reports or email responses should be returned directly to your designated Systems team contact as below.
Ongoing monthly submission of data
Once signed off you will need to provide data directly to us for:
- CARE Pay
- Starters
- Amendments
- Hour changes
- Service breaks
Please complete the excel interface templates on a monthly basis and send these to our shared mailbox: pensionsinterfaces-mailbox@devon.gov.uk
Please see the Employers Interfacing Guide for more information.
Help
If you have any queries regarding the on-line Employer Services facility, please email the Employer & Communications Team mailbox.
If you have any queries regarding the completion of the Excel interface templates, please email the Pensions Interfaces shared mailbox.
The Pensions Interfaces Mailbox is monitored throughout the working day, so may be used as a method of contacting the Systems Team with any general queries or questions about interfacing. If you prefer to contact the Systems Team member who looks after your data, please click on their name for their direct email address:
- Tom Bird – Devon County Council and Devon fund employers (non-schools)
- James Dyche – Devon fund schools
- Sophie Downer – Somerset Council, Somerset fund employers (non-schools), Police Officers and Civilians and Firefighters and Civilians
- Steve Bradford – Somerset fund schools
- Edward Hipkiss – District, Borough, City, Parish and Town Councils
Alternatively, you can call 01392 383000 and ask for the person by name. Please note that the team should only be contacted specifically regarding the annual return or interface process/contents; general queries should continue to be raised through existing established channels.