We are in the process of conducting a review due to non-receipt of essential member data, in particular year end updates.
We will work closely with employers during this exercise and there will be an initial contact with the Finance Director or senior GP at the organisation about non-receipt of the year-end updates.
The communication will confirm the number of Officer and Practice Staff members where we have not received data up to 31 March 2018 and a list of the members affected.
It is important to note that we have published several articles in past Employer Newsletters over a number of years confirming the legislative requirement for employers to ensure that member records are updated on time and in line with the Scheme Regulations.
The October 2013 Newsletter confirmed the following:
“Failure to provide annual updates for your members means that you are in breach of both NHS Pension Scheme Regulations and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Legislative requirements”
Employers who are not on ESR but who have access to Pensions Online (POL) must submit updates through this facility. Front end validations can highlight issues and help prevent the update going into error, improving your updated records and preventing the need for corrective action. Employers can view their non-updated records via the ADP4 and Non Updated records facility on Pensions Online in order to understand which records need updating.
Employers who do not have access to Pensions Online can obtain information about their member update status by emailing nhsbsa.datamanagement@nhs.net to request an up to date member list. Once the members have been identified please complete the annual update spreadsheet, which can be obtained via e-mail from nhsbsa.stakeholderengagement@nhs.net
Having accurate and updated records is extremely important and necessary for us to provide Annual Allowance statements and up to date Total Reward Statements (TRS)/Annual Benefit Statements (ABS). TRS/ABS provides members with a greater transparency in respect of their pensionable membership.
Pension data regarding Practitioners and non-GP Providers for the year 2016/17 was required by 30 April 2018.