Decision details

The Chairman asked for agreement that the order of the agenda be moved and it was agreed by the Committee to consider the first part of item 4 next.

Member Self Service

Mr O’Keefe Williams (Aquila Heywood) gave a demonstration of Member Self Service, an online portal allowing members to be able to access data and services directly from the software used by the Administration Section to administer the Fund.  He demonstrated some of the functionality and showed how members would be able to access benefit calculation projections, benefit statements, scheme/member documents, payslips & p60s online.

He highlighted advantages of the new system including that it would automatically adapt for use on tablets, smartphones, laptops etc.  The platform could have client customisation if required including dashboards, static scheme member information and video and image content – e.g. Twitter feeds, YouTube etc.  The Administering Authority would also have a greater degree of control over the data. Scheme members would only be able to see things that were important to them.

Mr O’Keefe Williams said the benefits of the system for the member would be

·         easier access

·         greater self-sufficiency

·         ability to run multiple projections instantly

·         security of personal data

·         data encrypted in transit.

The benefits for the administration team would be to:

·         reduce costs,

·         increase security and

·         reduce risk,

·         increase communication on engagements and member queries.

Mrs Burnham said that the pensioners would be first to be able to access Member Self Service followed by the active and deferred members. At the moment the timetable would be April/May for the first tranche of members, then October/November for the 2^nd tranche.

Mrs McWilliam said that this represented a fundamental change as the Fund can now initially respond to members to ask if they have tried the online tool rather than having the administration team having to run individual calculations for each scenario. Mr Everett urged caution as a danger with this is relying on members analysing their own data and outcomes correctly. There needs to be sufficient caveats that information is only for illustration purposes and are not actual final figures.

Mrs Burnham said that the communications officer was encouraging all people to sign up to Member Self Service and would be putting this information on Twitter as well.

Mrs McWilliam asked whether Councillors were covered by the new functionality.  Mrs Burnham confirmed this would be the case. Councillor Llewellyn Jones asked whether there would be notifications to let people know when annual benefits statements are online. Mrs Burnham explained that they would be sending email notifications and putting on social media when statements were available; the same approach would be taken with other information that the Administering Authority wish to encourage people to go online to view. The Pension Fund can also monitor who is logging on to view their benefit statements.

Mr Owen asked when it would be going live for people to log in to. Karen Williams (Principal Pension Officer) said that it was going to be in the next few months but will be encouraging members to register for the site.

Training for the team was last week and the Communications officer was planning to visit employers during May/June and then the system would go online officially in June/July.  Mr Latham asked whether notifications would go out in April for benefit statements. Mrs Burnham said statements would still go out as normal for 2017 but as of next year notifications would start being issued electronically by loading them onto the portal for scheme members to then download.

Councillor Bateman asked whether the Fund were happy with the data security and Mrs Burnham confirmed that they were.