A meeting of the CIPP’s local authority SIG was held at the premises of the London Metropolitan University on 7 November 2013
S
haun Tetley, of Portsmouth City Council, chaired the specialist interest
group (SIG) meeting and extended thanks to the speakers and to Sean Brosnam from the university for hosting and providing excellent facilities on the day. The meeting broke all records in terms of the number of attendees, and the feedback following the session has been very positive.
Childcare vouchers and salary sacrifice Richard Milligan and Peter Charge, of Computershare Voucher Services, delivered a presentation on the future of childcare vouchers and salary sacrifice schemes in the public sector.
Although employer supported childcare
(ESC) will still be available for some time there is an expectation that many parents will be grandfathered into the new tax-free childcare (TFC) scheme which the government announced in January 2013 and which is scheduled to go live in autumn 2015. Over time the existing tax exemption for ESC will be withdrawn. The two schemes were compared and winners and losers identified.
Salary sacrifice is likely to remain an
important and valuable mechanism for public sector organisations. Schemes run as cost neutral at worst, but in reality they can generate significant employer savings. As ESC is phased-out organisations will need to look to other salary sacrifice products to generate savings.
LGPS 2014 – brave new world? Patricia Critchley, of Eversheds LLP, covered the background and current state of play, what is still awaited, what is new – the key changes, and where to go for more help with the new Local Government Pension Scheme which comes into effect in 2014. Although there is no change to the key concept of ‘an employment’ in LGPS
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2014, the following are more important now: 50/50 section, separate ‘accounts’ per employment, single or separate employment and TUPE (transfer of undertaking protection of employment) provisions.
Amongst the changes to ‘pensionable
pay’ in LGPS 2014: non-contractual overtime is included, but cars/car allowances, compensation for loss of future pensionable payments/benefits, payment by scheme employer to a member on reserve forces service leave and (some) returning officer fees are excluded. Also, benefits are based on pay received in year, not pay due in that year.
Salary sacrifice car schemes In this presentation Andrew Leech, of Fleet Evolution, gave a benefits overview, and spoke about salary sacrifice for cars and driving employee engagement. Employee benefits research reveals that employers use benefits to improve recruitment, to improve retention, to control costs and link benefits to their business strategy.
In recent surveys respondents listed the benefits and compensation package as the most important factor when looking for a new job.
Salary sacrifice car schemes have now been introduced by 15% of employers who have a flexible benefit offering (1,000+ employees), and adopters of salary sacrifice car schemes report reductions in CO2 emissions in the commute to/from work alone.
LGPS 2014 – preparing Roy Roach, of Hymans Robertson LLP, explained what needs to be done to prepare for April 2014 when ‘LGPS 2014’ comes into effect. This includes: l review of payroll elements, as overtime and additional hours will become
pensionable pay l identify pay and determine the percentage contribution l set up the contribution bands l adjust contributions for part-timers as they will be based on actual pay, and contributions during absences l review discretionary policies l assumed pensionable pay, which will require annualising the average pay calculated over a period of twelve weeks or three months prior to the date when the individual went onto reduced or no pay. A simple example of assumed pensionable pay illustrated the calculations.
CIPP update
Samantha Mann, of CIPP’s Policy & Research, set out what the Institute had achieved in 2013, recent developments, and future aims and plans.
Amongst the achievements are: an eight per cent increase in membership compared with 2012, the implementation of the apprenticeship and pre-employment programme, and launch of the Professional Certificate in Team Management, the Certificate in Managing Global Payrolls and the Payroll Assurance Scheme. For the future, the CIPP aims to
grow membership, improve services to members, to continue the development of payroll and pensions education platform to support the changing needs of industry, and to raise the profile of payroll and pensions within business.
Sam reminded attendees that continuing professional development (CPD) is now mandatory for Full and Fellow members of the CIPP. A step-by-step guide for recording CPD can be found in the November issue of PayrollProfessional.
PP
The slide presentations etc can be found at:
https://ippmbeta.basecamphq.com/ projects/823549-local-authority/files.
membershipfocus
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