RQ - Pension Fund Payroll Manager

• Hybrid - 2 days in the office
• £35 per hour (umbrella)

Job Family overview Organisational support job family overview:

Delivery of services to support the Council and its partners in longer term; corporate compliance, contracting, planning, performance, policy and strategy.

• Focus on the business and service infrastructure of the Council and its partners to ensure effective management and proper compliance
• Advice and services rendered will generally be accepted as authoritative and recommended practice
• Specialist area and/or management knowledge
• Understanding area concepts and plans
• Defining implications of external influences and trends
• Shaping of Council responses including service plans/strategies & policies
• Definition & management of strategic planning processes
• Monitoring and reporting of performance

Service / function Context The overall responsibilities of the service/function are:

• The Wiltshire Pension Fund is established under Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations. Its purpose is to meet all future pension liabilities of its scheme members, whilst at the same time seeking to minimise the contributions that need to be paid into the Fund by the employer bodies. The level of employer contributions is assessed every three years through an actuarial valuation of the Fund.
• The Wiltshire Pension Fund administers pensions on behalf of over 180 different employer organisations, ranging from local authorities, FE colleges, academies, charities and third party service providers. The Pension Team is responsible for the governance and administration of the Wiltshire Pension Fund as well as the Fire Uniform Pension schemes. The LGPS benefits being administered amount to liabilities, valued at the last triennial valuation of £2.7bn and these are funded by assets managed by the Fund of circ. £3bn. The Fund pays out benefits of around £100m each year and receives in contributions from employers of £120m.
• The Fund must be administered in line with the appropriate statutory scheme and a variety of overarching legislation, including tax regulations. It also has to comply with various statutory guidance, in particular the Pension Regulator's Code of Practice 13, which covers the governance requirements expected of all public sector pension schemes, including the LGPS. Importantly the Fund is required to report any breaches of the law to the Pension Regulator, whether they have occurred within the Fund or any of the scheme's employers.
• The correct administration is critical to ensure the Fund isn't fined by the Pension Regulator along with the associated reputational risk, but the management of the Fund's assets and liabilities is attributable to its solvency and determines the level of contributions to be paid by employer's organisations, a significant cost for them and for many smaller employers as this has a direct impact on their financial viability.
• The Wiltshire Pension Fund ensures all pension benefits are paid correctly, on a timely basis and in line with the scheme regulations. It manages the relationships with the Fund's 180+ scheme employers, overseeing the admission and cessation of these organisations.
• It monitors and reviews the investment strategy of the Fund and brings forward proposals for improvement as appropriate to ensure the assets and costs of the Wiltshire Pension Fund are accounted for and reported correctly and legally. Investment manager services are procured on behalf of the Fund via the Brunel Pension Partnership, in which the Fund participates together with 9 other LGPS Funds.
• It procures actuarial services and other third party providers which value more than £7m and to ensure the continual development and enhancement of the pension administration service by improving performance and appropriate development of IT.

Main Purpose of the Job To plan and implement the new payroll system, supervising and coordinating transition of the Pensioner Payroll out of the Council's system onto a payroll integrated within the pension administration system. Monitoring and reporting on progress of this project to senior management, working with internal colleagues and external software providers. Independently developing new working practices and control processes in collaboration with the pension administration team.

To have overall responsibility for the pensioner payroll making more than 16,000 monthly BACS payments worth c£100m p/a. Ensure monthly pension payments and twice weekly immediate payments are made on time and accurately to all beneficiaries. All required regulatory returns and payments are completed and submitted on time.

As the leading qualified payroll specialist within the pension fund this role will require the post holder to independently lead this service and to resolve any issues and plan effectively to ensure this critical service is provided throughout the year. Any required support will need to be requested via external agencies or through reference to specialist pensions and tax regulations by the post holder.

Design and implement controls and processes to ensure the payroll is accurate, well controlled and administered efficiently. To report monthly on the effectiveness of these controls to senior management and identify any problems, proactively considering risks and problems before they occur.

Regularly undertake tasks to ensure the accuracy of payroll records, working with internal colleagues and external agencies to carry out mortality tracing, annual pension increases, pensioner records updates and dealing with any overpayment recovery.

To lead and direct the Payroll Officer, encompassing initial training and any changes to existing working practice. To plan workload across the small team to ensure all payroll deadlines are met to ensure on time and accurate payments are maintained.

Job duties

1. Run the monthly pensioner payroll, making timely and accurate payments to all pensioners. Ensuring all tasks are planned and conducted on time. This will include processing starters, leavers and any changes. Responding to time pressured requests for new payments and prioritising changes or new pensions to be paid as well as responding to requests from other teams and pensioners, ensuring the fixed monthly payroll deadline is always met.
2. To plan and implement transition of the Pensioner Payroll out of the Council's payroll system onto a payroll integrated within the pension administration system. Working with the system provider and council payroll team to transfer data in a controlled manner. Design and implement new processes to run within the pension team and proactively consider risks and controls required.
3. Complete all statutory returns and make associated payments, such as RTI returns to HMRC and tax payments on time. To be responsible for all member/HMRC tax code queries, ensuring the correct tax deductions are applied to pensions in payment. Maintaining a high level of understanding of relevant pensions and HMRC regulations which affect the payroll, interpreting these and ensuring the fund remains compliant. Undertaking this as the senior and senior leader of the payroll service for the pension fund and where support is required seeking appropriate external advice and guidance on issues.
4. To undertake monthly reconciliations and controls, compiling these to report on their effectiveness. Identify any issues and design new processes to address any problems. Being proactive in considering risks to the payroll to fraud, error or system failure and designing new processes to continually ensure a robust and accurate service is provided.
5. To work alongside the Benefit Managers to ensure all overpaid pensions are recovered on notification of death.
6. To undertake regular processes to ensure the integrity of payroll data, completing mortality tracing, updating payroll records such as address and bank detail changes. Reviews of child pension payments and ensuring changes to monthly pension payments for dependants transferring from short to long term benefits.
7. Providing a high quality service to all scheme members, effectively being the first point of contact for all relevant queries, issuing payslips and P60 reports.
8. To work in collaboration with member services department to resolve any queries from pensioners.
9. To provide outputs from the payroll system for input to the financial ledger.
10. Ensure clear and informative information is provided to members on their pay, through payslips and p60 documents provided electronically.
11. This role forms a key post in the Operations Team, and depending on workload will be required to assist with other tasks across the team in line with the skills and responsibilities of the role, in order to provide team resilience.

Person Specification Essential

• Experience of running a payroll for a large employer.
• A relevant professional payroll qualification.
• Evidence of continued professional development.
• Significant understanding of the principles of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
• Experience and working knowledge of the issues surrounding pensions nationally.
• Significant evidence of negotiation and influencing skills.
• A proven ability to solve problems and develop innovative, streamlined solutions.
• Skills in delegating and working with other members of a team.
• Fully conversant with Microsoft Office.
• Computer literate with at least "intermediate" spreadsheet skills and competent word-processing skills.
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