Pensions Data Audit Service Specification
The Review
- An independent review of the quality of the electronic records held, as set out by the Pension Regulator (“tPR”) in its guidance “Record-Keeping”.
The Software
- Our proprietary software removes the need for costly manual intervention which maximises accuracy and ensures the service is cost-effective.
- Our software accommodates all major administration platforms and can also be adapted to collect information when held in non-standard formats.
The Report
- The full audit report would normally be available within 14 days of receipt of complete records.
- Our easy to understand audit report provides high level analysis of the quality of data held scored against key tasks and presented in a way which allows increasing levels of detail to be examined as necessary.
- That ALL data should be 95% complete. This means that 95% of all members should have a complete set of common data
- That all new data (*) created after June 2010 should be 100% complete. This means that 100% of all members should have a complete set of common data
- An overall quality score is provided reflecting the number of members with complete set of common data recorded.
- For each member within the scheme the presence of all relevant common data items suggested by tPR is assessed.
- The results of the common data test are split out by membership status.
- Red indicates that the common data is insufficient and green indicates that the data is sufficient
- The results of the conditional data test consider for each member, the data for several events to identify if it can be used as the sole source of information without reference to any other data source.
- The test considers the member data for several events including on-going scheme administration, actuarial valuations or bulk exercises such as transfers and buyouts.
- Gives trustees the confidence of knowing that the scheme’s data is in good shape
- Can be linked to annual (or more regular) trustee reports to provide ongoing monitoring of quality or to quantify improvements.
- Allows the trustees to accurately monitor any Pensions Data Rectification undertaken.
- Where shortcomings are identified and remedial action is necessary, any actions needed can be prioritised and information collected in the most efficient manner, either at a member or data items level.
- Our Pensions Data Audit Team can deal directly with the pension scheme administrator to download information to ensure data is collected in an efficient and cost effective manner.
- Data can be regularly monitored to ensure improvements are being made in accordance with any agreed plan of action.
The audit consists of two core tests, namely:
Common Data Test
tPR recommends the following targets for the standard of common data and these must be achieved by Decemeber 2012.
The common data test measures the presence of common member data which is applicable to all scheme types, as set out in tPR’s guidance. The common data test will measure and clearly identify the completeness of common data as recommended by tPR, giving a percentage score for all data and data created after June 2010 separately.
(*) In tPR guidance they do not explicitly define what new data constitutes. For the purpose of this report we have taken it to mean any new member or any member record that has been amended post June 2010.
Conditional Data Test
The conditional data test identifies several scenarios and scheme events and explicitly recommends data that should be held for each, measures its completeness and presents results in a consistent way. This will enable trustees to implement and measure a data improvement plan that closely matches the likely purposes for which the scheme data will be used in the shorter and longer term.
The Pensions Data Audit report is also supplemented by a detailed results summary which can be provided in a spreadsheet format. This will allow the trustees to prioritise the actions that need to be taken in rectifying the data problems identified from the scheme and for them to be collected in a bulk format either by member record or across missing data items.
Having conducted a Pensions Data Audit trustees will wish to ensure that any deficiencies in their data are rectified and that administration procedures developed so that the data improves over time.
We therefore recommend that a Pensions Data Audit service should become a part of the regular quality assurance activities undertaken by pension scheme trustees.
Actions
The Future
To initiate the Pensions Data Audit process contact Mark Johnson or David Davison on 0141 331 1004 to discuss your specific requirements.
Next, why not take a look at our rectification service
