Local Government Pension Scheme Appeal Determination By The Secretary of State

Our Ref: LGR 85/18/151

31 March 1999

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION APPEAL

SUPERANNUATION ACT 1972

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME REGULATIONS 1995 (the 1995 regulations)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME REGULATIONS 1997 (the 1997 regulations)

1. I refer to your letter of 15 January 1999 in which you appeal (under regulation 102 of the 1997 regulations) to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions against the decision of Mr XXX, the Appointed Person.

2. The Appointed Person decided that he could not under the internal disputes resolution procedure consider your complaint alleging delay by the fund and in providing information to enable you to decide whether to transfer your pension benefits accrued in a pension scheme run by XXX to the local government pension scheme (LGPS). You claim that delays in providing you with information led to the loss in value of the benefits to be transferred.

3. The Secretary of State’s powers under regulations 102 and 103 of the 1997 regulations are to reconsider the original disagreement referred to the Appointed Person under regulation 100. This regulation refers to a matter relating to the LGPS, which effectively means whether the LGPS regulations have been correctly applied in the circumstances. There are no provisions to award compensation where claims are made that there have been delays in providing information with regard to the LGPS. Like the appointed person the Secretary of State has no powers to direct a local authority to act outside the provisions of the regulations.

4. The Secretary of State’s decision: The Secretary of State has taken into account the appropriate regulations at the time you were considering whether to transfer your benefits. Until 31 March 1998 regulation K13 of the 1995 regulations applied to transfers into the LGPS. Entitlements to transfer values are set out in the Occupational Pension Schemes (Transfer Values) Regulations 1996.

5. The Secretary of State notes from the evidence provided by the Appointed Person that when you first accepted a transfer value after joining the LGPS there were significant delays in consequence of which XXX provided a new computation over one year later, dated 18 February 1998. This delay does not appear to have disadvantaged you given that the new value, and the service credit it could buy, were higher than those you originally accepted. But, in any event, the Secretary of State has no jurisdiction over XXX and the scheme they administered was not part of the LGPS. He cannot therefore take this issue into account.

6. The Secretary of State also notes that, after XXX had provided their new computation dated 18 February 1998, there were further delays as a result of which the guarantee period expired before you accepted the revised value. The delays appear to have arisen in deciding the amount of service credit which the transfer value would buy. There was then some further delay before another transfer value was provided to you.

7. The Secretary of State accepts that the cumulative delays since 18 February 1998 have operated to your disadvantage in that the most recent transfer value is significantly lower than the earlier ones. However, neither your employer nor the fund appear directly to have breached the regulations and there is no provision which would allow the Secretary of State to require the fund to give you a service credit other than one properly calculated on the current transfer value from your former scheme. Because he has no appropriate powers of redress, the Secretary of State cannot helpfully consider whether maladministration has occurred in the context of a pension appeal. He therefore dismisses your appeal.

8. This completes the second stage of the internal dispute resolution procedure. The Pensions Advisory Service (OPAS) is available to assist members and beneficiaries in connection with difficulties which they have failed to resolve. Their address is 11 Belgrave Road, London, SW1V 1RB (telephone number 0171 233 8080). You may wish to consider whether it is appropriate to refer the matter to the Pensions Ombudsman. The Pensions Ombudsman may investigate allegations of maladministration and may also investigate and determine any complaint or dispute of fact or law in relation to the LGPS made or referred in accordance with the Pensions Schemes Act 1993. His address is 11 Belgrave Road, London, SW1V 1RB (telephone number 0171 834 9144).