Outsourcing services and TUPE

There are two provisions that cover the protection of pensions for employees who are under TUPE:

The Fair Deal for Staff Pensions - staff transfer from local government (and)

The Best Value Authorities Staff Transfers (Pensions) Direction 2007 - pension protection for employees of English best value authorities (and Welsh Police authorities) where the provision of services are contracted out and staff transferred under TUPE.

These two provisions give pension protection to employees who are transferred from one employer to another while they are members of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

Both provisions protect the continuous service within the LGPS making sure there is no break in service when an employer change occurs while the member has not changed job role.

There are 3 principal areas to consider when joining the LGPS,

• Contributions
• Strain Cost
• Cessation (end of the contract)

A comprehensive explanation of these considerations can be found on our risk and what to consider page 

*Please make sure you understand these considerations before entering the LGPS.

Before the transfer date, employers outsourcing a service must notify the pension fund of the transfer via email and send the completed data capture sheet to: Employer.Relations@wiltshire.gov.uk in the first instance. They will need details of the transfer including contract and membership details to then issue a data capture sheet. 

The data capture sheet must be completed by the employer who has initiated the TUPE, we will inform the ceding employer of the costs involved.

The data capture sheet, completed by the ceding employer includes 2 tabs:

Tab 1 - Details of the new employer and risk sharing arrangements (details of the risk sharing arrangements can be found on our risk and what to consider page

Tab 2 - Pay and details of the  staff involved. We cannot proceed with the TUPE until this is fully completed. The data capture sheet can be found on our new employer starter pack page

The potential new employer will receive a data capture sheet requesting details of the staff joining them, they will also be given details of costs and asked to complete an authorised contact form.

Next steps:

Once we have received all the necessary information via the data capture sheets, we will request an employer contribution rate and if you are joining as an Admitted Body the Admission Agreement must be agreed and signed by all relevant parties, giving you entry to the fund.

Please note: An Admitted Body is not a Fund employer until the admission agreement is signed by all relevant parties and as such, should not send any contributions to the Fund. The Admitted Body should collect the contributions and hold on to these until the admission agreement has been signed by all relevant parties.

The next step will be for the new employer to receive all the information needed to administer the pension fund.

Information New Employers will receive

Contribution Rates:

Confirmation of your employer contribution rate will be provided. We set the Employer contributions every three years for all the employers in our fund., known as the triennial valuation. Your initial employer contribution rate will take you to the next valuation year. At the triennial valuation year, a new rate will be issued for the following 3 years. Your contribution rate could be reviewed sooner if there is a material change in your membership or "risk" to the Fund of you not maintaining the contributions.

The employee contribution rates are set yearly and can be found on our contributions page

i-Connect:

Our Employer Services Team will on board you to i-Connect our secure data portal, you will use I Connect to submit data by 10^th of each month. While you are waiting to be onboarded to our data portal a monthly administration spreadsheet will be provided for any changes to your employee's

Contributions:

Our bank details, and a monthly contribution spreadsheet will be provided. For Admitted Bodies, this is issued once your admission agreement is signed by all relevant parties.  All spreadsheets must be with us by 10^th month together with your I connect submission and contributions must be with us by 19^th of the month following deduction form pay.

For Admitted Bodies, once you have signed the admission agreement, your first payment of contributions should include any back payments or arrears i.e. from the date of TUPE to date.

Discretion Policy:

As per the pension regulations, you will need to have your Discretion Policy in place within 3 months of joining the fund, more information can be found on new employer starter pack page

Once approved by your organisation, this should be published so that past, current and future members can view this e.g. on your website and a copy must be sent to the Fund.

Please note you will also need to review this policy at least every 3 years or should the scheme rules materially change.

Memorandum of Understanding:

This is our Data Sharing Agreement, please read and send a signed copy of the WPF Memorandum of Understanding (Word doc, 32 KB)(opens new window) back to us as soon as possible. This allows us to share your data and any associated queries with any outsourced HR and/or Payroll providers. 

Authorised Contacts:

Wiltshire Pension Fund will issue you an Employer Contact Form (PDF, 162 KB)(opens new window) if  you are not already set this up with us, detailing the authorised contact competed as soon as possible. Wiltshire Pension Fund will only accept work and requests from an authorised contact. Any work received from a member of your organisation who is not on the list will be returned.