Back to news 21 July 2023
Administration service following the transition to Premier
As previously noted, the transfer of administration services from Capita Pensions Solutions Ltd (“Capita”) to Premier Pensions Management Ltd (‘’Premier’’), part of the Isio Group, took place on 1st June 2023.
The Trustee was not satisfied with the level of service being provided by Capita and many members had raised concerns about the service they had received. The decision was made to review the RPF administration provider, after an extended period of working with Capita to try to improve member experience. The review involved a detailed tender process, including (but not limited to) questionnaires, presentations and a site visit. This process reviewed Capita against other leading administrators and ultimately resulted in a decision to appoint Premier.
The Trustee is hopeful that Premier will make a real positive change to the administration of RPF, particularly as their service will be highly automated so improving the efficiency from previously manual calculations and processes. The service also gives members on-line access to RPF documentation and their own records when necessary to edit details. At a later stage, the website will provide automatic calculation functionality to provide deferred pensioners with an indication of their retirement benefits in the RPF.
Unfortunately, we understand that in the initial period following the transition, some members have experienced some difficulties and delays with the administration service being provided by Premier, particularly relating to payroll payment dates, on-line access and retirement quotations. We would like to apologise for this. Moving to a new administrator is a major undertaking and whilst significant efforts were made to ensure a smooth transition, some teething issues are not unusual. These issues have arisen as a result of (i) a backlog of cases from prior to, and during the transition – which were expected, and (ii) some unexpected issues – partly due to the handover of information from Capita and partly due to the complexities of this particular scheme.
We are working with Premier to resolve these as quickly as possible and to move to their standard high service levels. Premier are working hard to progress the back log and the new day-to-day cases, as well as resolving the transition issues. With our agreement, they are prioritising certain cases such as deaths and pension settlements. We understand the issue with the information and dates shown on the member on-line portal has been resolved. Unfortunately, the issue with issuing retirement quotes is proving more challenging but it is hoped that it will be resolved soon. Premier will then be able to start working through the requests already received.
With regards to pensioner payroll, the mid-month payroll run was processed as planned for 15th July. However, we understand that there were some overseas members that received their pension payment later than they had previously. For these members, Capita had been running their payroll earlier resulting in these pensions being paid a few days prior to the 15th. Going forward, these pensions will be aligned with the rest of the mid-month payroll. As these are overseas pensions, the payment may take an additional two working days to reach member’s accounts. This is due to the time taken for the transmission to be processed by Convera (formerly Western Union).
Once again, we apologise for any delays or inconvenience being experienced by members and would like to reassure you that providing a high-quality service to members is a priority. We are confident that the transition will improve member experience in the longer term and would ask you to bear with us, and Premier, particularly for non-urgent queries, whilst we resolve the remaining issues.