Pension And Compensation Schemes For Operational Staff
- Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service
Overview
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) currently has two pension schemes and one compensation
scheme for Wholetime, Retained, part time and volunteer firefighters:

The Firefighters Pension Scheme (FPS)

The New Firefighters Pension Scheme, (and Modified Scheme) (NFPS);

The Firefighters Compensation Scheme.
A new pension scheme (The Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) Scheme) is due to be implemented on 1 April
2015. From 01/04/2015 both the FPS and NFPS and the modified element of the NFPS will be closed and a new Career
Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) Scheme will be introduced. The accrual rate in this scheme is proposed to be 1/64.8
for each year of pensionable service. The commutation factor for the CARE Scheme will be £12 for every £1 commuted.
The normal retirement age will be 55 with a deferred pension is state pension age or 65 if this is higher. There will also be
survivor benefits to eligible spouses, civil partner, nominated partners and children where applicable.
Overall Objective
HSC Pensions Service to provide a highly cost-effective and efficient pension service to NIFRS using:
 An agreed Service Level Agreement (SLA);
 A detailed list of Key Performance Indicators.
Context
Since December 2014, NIFRS license for their operating software AXISe provided by Heywood has expired, with the
result that they do not have access to the system and, therefore, are manually calculating all Pension events. HSC
Pension Service (HSCPS) currently provides retirement benefits to Health and Social Care employees, GPs, Dentists and
employees of other approved organisations in Northern Ireland. The HSC Pension Scheme has 81,802 members
(including deferred and undecided leavers) and 31,610 pensioners in receipt of benefits. HSCPS is the largest Public
Sector Pension Scheme in NI.
HSCPS has participated in the CIPFA Benchmarking club in 2012 and 2014 and is the most cost-effective pension
provider in comparison with 54 other providers throughout the UK. Performance indicators, in terms of delivering services
in accordance with industry standards, rank in the top 10 per cent of pension providers. In 2014, HSCPS successfully bid
for capital monies from DPF to upgrade the operating system Altair to facilitate the Pension Reform legislative changes
that have taken effect from 1 April 2015. The system is now in place and operational. HSCPS has also put in place a
dedicated communications strategy which includes a series of Pension Reform seminars, a new Scheme Guide, a
Scheme booklet for those staff who do not have access to a PC, a dedicated micro website and an ELearning programme
on the HSC ELearning platform.
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The Solution
HSCPS have already updated the pension administration software to facilitate Pension Reform and have proven that,
through Benchmarking across NI and the UK and customer surveys, they provide a highly cost-effective and efficient
pension service. It is proposed, therefore, that HSCPS provide a similar pension service to NIFRS in accordance with an
agreed SLA and detailed list of KPIs (annex A). HSCPS would provide operational services only, whilst NIFRS would
retain responsibility for Scheme Legislation and Policy. NIFRS would also retain responsibility for the production and
maintenance of the Scheme annual accounts.
HSCPS and NIFRS have taken part in exploratory discussions and both parties feel that this solution would be
advantageous and would provide a successful solution to the current situation within NIFRS. Subject to the agreement of
the respective Boards of BSO and NIFRS, it would be possible to agree and sign a SLA in June 2015 with a proposed golive date of 1 September 2015. This would allow sufficient time to put the required resources in place, initial training of
staff and a project plan implemented to migrate existing NIFRS data onto the existing HSC Altair database, with separate
and stand-alone access.
Proposal
The migration of Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) pension administration service on the expired AXISe
platform to a standalone altair platform, hosted and administered by HSC BSO.
Rationale
Due to the end of life of AXISe on 31 December 2014, NIFRS are unable to access or administer their pension scheme
data via the AXISe system. The NIFRS pension scheme needs to be live on an altair solution hosted at HSC by 1
September 2015 in preparation for Pensions Reform legislation to take effect. The payment of NIFRS Pensioners was
completed outside of AXISe and it is assumed that this will continue to be the case once the NIFRS scheme data is
converted to an altair solution.
Work Required
In order to complete a data migration and installation of NIFRS data at HSC by 31 March 2015, the following steps will be
required:
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NIFRS AXISe data returned to heywood on DVD
heywood completes the following documents with assistance from HSC and NIFRS
Technical Study – To cover server sizing, performance, installation of new services, user licences and
more.
Functional Study – To cover NIFRS use of AXISe and how this translates to HSC. This will cover training
needs.
Project Initiation Document (PID) – To cover budget and heywood project monitoring.
heywood complete all data cleansing of NIFRS data. This may require some assistance from NIFRS.
heywood converts all NIFRS data to an altair service
heywood reconciles the altair service
Installation of NIFRS data on HSC altair server
Training and User Acceptance Testing will be completed by HSC
Data refreshed and go-live at HSC
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Resources
The following table details the pricing for delivery of the services outlined in this proposal:
Costs are subject to change if project specifications are changed before a SLA is executed.
HSC Pension Staff Costs
Altair License Fee
Annual Fee
System Implementation
2015/2016
34,943
24,702
29,241
48,578
137,464
Full Year *
59,903
24,702
29,241
0
113,846
*Full year cost will be subject to pay and price inflation
HSCPS will employ 1 x Band 3 staff and 1 x Band 4 staff to process and check NIFRS scheme
events in accordance with existing audit requirements.
Areas Out Of Scope
The following options are currently out of scope, but could be considered for the future:
Pensions Reform
As part of the migration project, there will be a requirement to consider pensions’ reform legislation applicable from 1 April
2015. Although this is classed as ‘future work’, this is because the requirements are currently unknown. It is understood
the work needs to be incorporated and included in the NIFRS altair service and be available for 1 April 2015.
Backlog Scanning
NIFRS do not hold digital member files on AXISe. The conversion to altair will only migrate documents generated by
AXISe and supported by altair. This will not include old document production documents or any images/microfiches
stored on an external system.
For efficiency, a backlog scanning project could be considered to load the NIFRS member’s documents onto altair.
Costs for this work are difficult to estimate without knowing the number of pages to be scanned and converted into
images, but could be estimated at 25-30 days
Merge to Single Service
This migration project sees NIFRS as a separate service to HSC. Whilst NIFRS is an admin only service, this is
acceptable, but should HSC take on the payment of NIFRS pensioners, it would be advantageous to maintain this from
one system. With two separate systems, there will be duplicate deliveries leading to potentially extended down time.
Merging of the NIFRS live altair service into the existing HSC test and live services could be estimated at 15-20 days
Pensioner Payroll
NIFRS do not currently pay pensioners from their AXISe service. A new project would be required if HSC decide to do this
in the future. It would be an ideal opportunity to combine the NIFRS and HSC member data, as mentioned above, at this
time.
It would be very difficult to estimate re. installation of pensioner payroll into the NIFRS service as many of the
requirements are unknown and could only be substantiated by a payroll survey.
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1
Risk
Lack of Knowledge re Fire
Service Pension Schemes
legislation
2
Lack of Resources
3
Additional Software
supplier costs
4
GAD Costs
5
HSC Data
6
Unforeseen/ unplanned
additional tasks
7
NIFRS data
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Information Governance
Mitigation / Controls
Existing software provider Heywood will
deliver initial training to HSC staff.
NIFRS will retain responsibility for Policy and
Regulations and will determine interpretation
of same.
HSC will also make use of existing fora such
as inter-judiciary pension group, Fire Service
Scheme national group and advice sought
from GAD.
HSCPS will employ 1 x Band 3 staff and 1 x
Band 4 staff to process and check NIFRS
scheme events in accordance with existing
audit requirements.
The contract for Altair pension system will be
directly with NIFRS and Heywood.
HSCPS will seek prior approval for any
additional costs such as change requests.
NIFRS will make payments direct to Heywood.
GAD costs are driven by service demand and
statutory change and are therefore difficult to
forecast or control.
NIFRS will retain budget for these costs and
make payments direct to GAD.
HSCPS will seek prior approval before
engaging with GAD re Fire service schemes.
NIFRS data will be held separately at all times
from HSC data to avoid any data
contamination and in line with audit controls.
HSC staff will have separate log-in
arrangements and permissions to access
NIFRS data
Any additional tasks or projects outside the
SLA with NIFRS will be fully costed and
agreed with NIFRS prior to any work
commencing.
NIFRS will be re-charged for any such work.
NIFRS will ensure that all member data is
accurate at the point of transfer and ensure
accuracy on an on-going basis through NIFRS
payroll interface.
HSC Pension Service will ensure that
appropriate agreements are developed to
ensure compliance with Data Protection
Legislation.
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Transfer of NIFRS to DOJ
In this event HSCPS will transfer Scheme data
to DOJ via Heywood. TUPE regulations will
apply to Bd 3 and Bd 4 staff employed for this
work
Governance Arrangements
There is a need to have in place governance arrangements between NIFRS and BSO to provide a
vehicle for assurances that the processing of pension events is being conducted in accordance with
the SLA.
Governance Structure:
A formal Service Level Agreement encompassing the services to be delivered will be signed and
agreed by both organisations.
A Customer Panel meeting can be arranged at a time and place to be mutually agreed. A quarterly
summary report of key indicators on service areas will also be provided by the BSO. This report will
include information on:-
Actual activity and expenditure levels and percentage variations on baseline volumes.
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Performance reports on agreed items
Further information relating to any of the individual KPIs within the SLA may be provided to customers
in sufficient detail to allow for full discussion at subsequent meetings and agreement on a way
forward, which might include, for example, re-prioritisation of tasks, re-deployment of existing staff,
consideration of overall resource levels etc.
The parties to this agreement may agree to conduct a review of the services provided under it. Such
a review will be undertaken in a spirit of co-operation and will be guided only by a desire to improve
the quality and cost- effectiveness of the service. The KPIs (annex A) may be reviewed at any time
throughout the year at the request of either party. There will be a formal review of customer
satisfaction carried out by the BSO at the end of the year.
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Corrective Action
Where the BSO and/or the customer identify areas that are included in the Service Level Agreement
that require corrective action, the following shall act as a guideline:
1
A minor breach of the Service
Appropriate operational staff.
Level Agreement
2
A break-down of part of the
Appropriate operational staff.
Service Level Agreement occurs.
3
A breakdown of several parts of
Assistant Director – Customer
the Service Level Agreement
Care & Service Improvement
occurs.
Any dispute concerning or arising out of this Agreement or its construction of effect or concerning the
rights, duties or liability of either party shall be referred to arbitration in accordance with this clause.
Any dispute shall be referred in the first instance to Assistant Director – HSC Pension Service.
Then, if not resolved, to the signatories of the Agreement.
Then, if still not resolved, to a mutually agreed arbitrator.
If a mutually agreed arbitrator cannot be identified then the last line of arbitration shall be the
Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. Both parties shall endeavour to resolve all
disputes prior to going to arbitration. Arbitration is recognised by both parties as a last resort to the
resolution of disputes. The arbitrator shall have the power to order specific performance of an
obligation to be performed under this agreement and will only be empowered to accept the
submission of one or other of the parties as presented.
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Key Performance Indicators
Area Of Work
Joiners/rejoiners
Annex A
Performance Indicator
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Correspondence
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Leavers
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Transfers In:
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Transfers Out
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Additional Pension/Half cost Added
Years
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Death ( In – Service/ preserved/ Retired
member)

Performance
The BSO shall validate new start details and
issue SD56 within 15 working days of receipt
of the relevant interface data
BSO will allocate joiners/re-joiners to correct
section of the NIFRS Pension Scheme
The BSO will acknowledge all ad-hoc
correspondence within 15 working days of
receipt of all information
The BSO will provide members who leave
with less than 2 years membership details of
options to take either a transfer value or
refund of contributions within 13 months of
the member leaving.
The BSO will refund contributions within 3
months of receiving the application
The BSO will preserve benefits 13 months
after the date any member with at least 2
years membership leaves the Scheme, once
in receipt of all relevant information
The BSO shall acknowledge receipt of
Member’s request for transfer value within
15 working days, once in receipt of all
relevant information
The BSO will issue request for transfer
value to sending scheme within 15 days of
receiving member’s request
The BSO shall send a reminder to the
sending scheme after 60 days with further
reminders at regular intervals
The BSO shall process transfer amount
within 15 working days of receipt of
members instruction to transfer their rights
The BSO shall acknowledge receipt of
instruction from Member’s pension scheme
within 15 working days once in receipt of all
relevant information
The BSO shall provide a transfer quote
within 8 weeks of receiving the request once
in receipt of all relevant information (quote
guaranteed for 3 months)
The BSO shall complete the transfer within
20 working days of receiving the member’s
instruction to transfer their rights.
The BSO shall issue estimate of costs to
Members within 15 working days of receipt
of request once in receipt of all relevant
information
.The BSO shall send notification for payroll
deduction within 20 working days of receipt
of the appropriate authority.
The BSO will send confirmation of
correspondence to scheme member on
completion of additional pension request.
The BSO shall calculate and issue award
details within 15 working days of receipt of
the application and all relevant documents.
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Area Of Work
Age Retirement
Performance Indicator
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Ill-Health retirement
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Early Retirement
Cash Equivalent Transfer Values for
Divorce or Separation purposes
(CETV’s)
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The BSO shall calculate and issue final
award details on receipt of the fully
completed application for payment of award
and at least 1 week prior to pension start
date where all relevant information has been
received
The BSO shall refer the application to its
Medical Adviser within 5 working days
The BSO shall notify employer/member
whether ill health criteria have been met
within 5 working days of receipt of Medical
Adviser’s advice
The BSO shall calculate and issue award
details on receipt of the fully completed
application for payment of award and at least
1 week before pension start date where all
relevant information has been received
The BSO shall calculate and issue final
award details on receipt of the fully
completed application for payment of award.
And at least 1 week before pension start date
where all relevant information has been
received
The BSO acknowledge receipt of request
within 15 working days.
The BSO will calculate and issue CETV
within statutory time limit of 3 months from
date all relevant information received.
The BSO shall send confirmation of
correspondence to scheme member on
completion of CETV.
Injury Benefit

The BSO will calculate and issue award
details within 20 working days of receipt of
all required information
Pension Sharing Orders

The BSO will acknowledge receipt within 15
working days.
The BSO will calculate and issue revised
statements for both Debit and Credit
Member as at valuation date (as defined in
Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 of
pension sharing order within statutory time
limit of 4 months from valuation date.
The BSO shall send confirmation of
correspondence to scheme member / credit
member on completion of Pension Sharing
Order

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Annual Benefit Statements

Benefit Estimates

Performance
The BSO will issue Members an annual
benefit statement, based on data as at 31
March, and deferred Members every 5
years.
The BSO will provide an estimate of benefits
for members within 20 working days of
receipt of a request, provided they have not
received an annual benefit statement or
been provided with an estimate in the
previous 12 months.
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Area Of Work
Payroll Administration
Performance Indicator
Performance
The BSO will:
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Pay all existing pensions on due date
Ensure 99% of existing pensions are correct
at point of payment
Ensure 95% of new pension awards are
correct at point of payment
Pay the lump sum into new pensioner’s or
dependant’s accounts by the end of the
week following their retirement where all
relevant information has been received.
Pay the first pension payment into new
pensioners and dependants accounts by
the end of the month following retirement /
death where all relevant information has
been received.
Issue P60’s annually and within statutory
deadlines
Apply pension increases on an annual basis
in accordance with HMT guidelines
Issue a Pay advice note to existing
pensioners in any month with a variance of
£5 net
Issue a pay advice note to new pensioners
Ensure GMP is applied on time and
accurately in accordance with Statutory
Regulations
Monitor debits and credits to the Scheme
account to ensure payroll transactions are
complete, accurate and validated.
Recover early retirement and Injury Benefit
costs from employers in accordance with
legislation
.
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