DIRECTOR – SPECIAL PROJECTS
UCL FINANCE AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS
30 May 2012
Letter to deferred and pensioner members of the Royal Free Hospital School of
Medicine Pension and Assurance Scheme (the “Scheme”)
Transfer to the Superannuation Arrangements of
the University of London (“SAUL”)
Introduction
This letter is written on behalf of the Scheme Trustee (the Trustee) and is addressed to you
as a deferred or pensioner member of the Scheme. This letter contains important
information about the future administration of your benefits following transfer to SAUL.
Background to the transfer
You were sent a letter dated 29 March 2012 explaining UCL’s proposals in detail to transfer
your accrued benefits to SAUL together with a Guide. It has been necessary to consult with
active members, whose future benefit accrual is affected, and that consultation process
came to an end on 28 May 2012.
The Trustee has since then been discussing with UCL, UCL's proposals, including the
responses from members and the trades unions arising from the consultation. UCL has
notified the Trustee that based on these discussions and the consultation responses, it is
minded to ask the Trustee to make the proposed transfer.
The Trustee has considered UCL’s transfer proposal carefully and taken independent legal
and actuarial advice. . The Trustee will be entering into a transfer agreement and obtaining
from the Scheme Actuary a Transformation Certificate which certifies that the transfer credits
in SAUL are at least equal in value to the rights transferred and the Certificate will cover all
active, deferred and pensioner members so no member's consent to the transfer of their
past service benefits is required.
Following these considerations, the Trustee of the Scheme has decided to proceed with
entering into the transfer agreement and subject to the conditions in the agreement being
met the transfer of benefits to SAUL in accordance with the proposals set out in the letter
dated 29 March 2012, which has the agreement of UCL will take place. The merger is
planned to take place with effect from 30 June 2012. More details about SAUL are on its
website.
What does this mean for me as a deferred member?
If you are a deferred member of the Scheme, from 30 June 2012, you will become a
deferred member of SAU on the transfer taking place. SAUL will have responsibility for
providing the benefits you accrued while an active member of the Scheme, and the
calculation of those benefits and the provision of death benefits will be on the SAUL benefits
basis, as illustrated in the enclosed benefits comparison.
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A comparison of the Scheme benefits with SAUL is enclosed. You have also received a
statement of the revised benefits accruing up to 30 June 2012 in SAUL as calculated by the
Scheme actuary, and information about pension increases.
What does this mean for me - if I am a current pensioner?
If you are a pensioner member, you will receive your pension from SAUL in future.
There will be no change to the amount of your benefits and your pension will remain
unchanged. Also, the amount of benefits payable on death to your family will be unaffected.
If you have made your wishes known about beneficiaries on death, then these will remain
valid, but you may wish to change your nomination at some point in the future. SAUL makes
its monthly pension payments on 24th of each month for that month, whereas the previous
pensions administrator is making payments monthly in advance on the anniversary of your
retirement.
You will be contacted shortly to be advised of the transitional arrangements for payment of
your pension.
The proposals in brief
The broad aims of the proposed transfer of Scheme benefits into SAUL are:
1. To maintain the value of past service benefits that Scheme members have built up to
date.
2. To continue to provide a good pension scheme for active Scheme members which is
administered to a high standard but at a reasonable cost.
3. To provide a long-term, sustainable pensions solution for employees and UCL.
Your Personal Data
As a part of the merger, the Trustee will transfer all of the Scheme's data to SAUL so that
SAUL can administer your benefits. As such we will transfer all of the personal data we hold
in respect of you to the trustee of SAUL.
The SAUL trustee will hold and process all personal data to enable it to calculate and
administer your pension benefits and it has they have a legitimate interest and legal
obligation to do so. Any such processing will comply fully with the requirements of the Data
Protection Act 1998.
Further information
If you have any further questions, please contact Miss Fenella Needham, Pensions
Manager, Human Resources (extn: 41243 or by e-mail: f.needham@ucl.ac.uk).
Yours sincerely
Jack Foster
Director – Special Projects
Enc; benefit comparison
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