This is a requirement for the Defined Contribution (DC) section (partnership & Concord only) driven by the need for the Legal & General Mastertrust trustees to obtain assurance that contributions are paid correctly on the correct pensionable earnings.
1. The Pension Regulator’s (tPR) Code of Practice 5, sections 22 to 35, outlines the requirement for Trustees to have processes in place to check that the contributions paid under a payment schedule are reconciled with what is actually paid into the scheme.
This will involve testing a sample of member data over a yearly period, to ensure that employer, and where relevant, employee contributions are the correct percentages.
Legal & General will select five employers with more than 50 members and five employers with less than 50 members. These will be randomly selected each year. However, the same employer will not be selected more than once every five years.
2. Legal & General will send the request for samples of member data in June to the selected employers, via Legal & General’s Secure Email service. Data will include the member name, National Insurance number and employee payroll number. The sample will be on 5% of the employers DC scheme membership. The period will cover the 12 months since the last payroll submission to Legal & General.
3. Employers should fill in the Excel spreadsheet with the total employer and (where relevant) member contributions, pensionable earnings, annual salary and the member’s start date in partnership or Concord. There is only one tab to be filled out.
Please reply to the original Legal & General requestor’s email address via Legal & General’s Secure Email service.
The information should be sent back to Legal & General as soon as possible, but no later than one month after receiving the request. Failure to provide this information could lead to being reported to The Pensions Regulator.
4. Legal & General will then check that the information is correct. If it is not, further correspondence will be issued, which should be responded to within 10 working days of receipt.
If you require further assistance on the content of this EPN, please contact ian.korner@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you have a question about the distribution of EPNs, or would like to receive them in a different format, please contact EPN@MyCSP.co.uk.
You can find electronic copies of the Employer Pension Guide, all current EPNs and forms in the Employer section of the Civil Service Pensions website.
This notice is for employers and should not be issued to scheme members.
Members can find information about their pension by visiting the member's section.