Over 40 authorities and schools have submitted information to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme for almost 8,500 members as a result of intervention by The Pensions Regulator.

TPR worked closely with the TPS to ensure the authorities and schools acted correctly to comply with their duties and has issued a regulatory intervention report outlining the process. As a result, the regulator did not need to use its legal powers.

In May 2016, TPS administrator Capita approached TPR after three local authorities and 40 non-local authority employers failed to submit audited End of Year Certificates (EOYCs) for 2014/15 to the scheme manager by the legal deadline. These schemes comprised of 8,349 members.

The certificates are necessary to assure scheme managers, in this case the Secretary of State for Education, that contributions have been correctly credited to the scheme. Without accurate records there is a risk that current and future pensioners will not be paid the benefits they are entitled to.

Once informed of this missing information, TPR contacted non-compliant authorities and employers and found a lack of knowledge surrounding the legal obligation to submit these forms. The Regulator then worked with employers to ensure they understood what was required of them.

TPR director of case management Mike Birch, said: "Scheme managers have a legal duty to provide their members with accurate and timely information about their benefits, and they can’t do this if they don’t hold accurate records.

"Scheme managers should have robust processes in place to ensure accurate data is provided on time. Where these processes fail to ensure employers provide the information required by law to the scheme we are able to step in."

Birch added: "Our focus in this case was to address the issue of employer non-compliance. This is an example of how effective our approach of educate and enable can be. As a result of working closely with the scheme and non-compliant employers we have increased their understanding of EOYCs, the necessary certificates have been submitted and we have not had to invoke our legal powers.

"Our work with the Teachers' Pension Scheme shows how we can intervene to ensure the correct operation of pension schemes."

The intervention resulted in all non-compliant employers submitting the required information to the scheme administrator, except one which entered administration.

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