Mr Smith, Technical Adviser (Pensions) presented a report which updated Board members on various pension related regulatory issues.
He reported that the requirement in LGPS regulations for Fund members to take payment of an unreduced pension conflicted with the more recent exit cap regulations which prevented employers from paying the full strain cost. As a result the new regulations were the subject of legal challenge and applications for judicial review. Mr Smith informed the Board that in accordance with the advice of the Scheme Advisory Board the Fund had advised the Local Pensions Partnership that any cases received for employers in scope of the cap can be released where the exit costs are clearly under the cap and termination dates are not beyond 31st March 2021. It was noted that to date there had been no cases for the Fund where the exit cap had been breached.
The Board also noted that the employer risk function currently undertaken by the Local Pensions Partnership Administration would transfer back to the Fund with effect from the 1st April 2021 and recruitment was underway to support that function.
Resolved: That the updates on regulatory matters, as set out in the report presented and discussed at the meeting, are noted.