Different areas within NISPI and what they do

Contracted out Early Leavers Section (COEL)

This business area is responsible for:

• dealing with correspondence mainly from pension scheme administrators and providers on salary related, money purchase, mixed benefit, Appropriate Personal Pension and stakeholder schemes
• ensuring that the correct amount of Age Related Rebates (ARRs) are calculated and paid to scheme members
• dealing with apparent un-notified termination notices where scheme membership has, or appears to have, ended

COEL also deal with the (APP) and APP stakeholder applications, cancellations and transfers. They resolve queries on termination notices, provide Contracted-out deduction calculations, deal with correspondence, late payments, recoveries of minimum contribution payments and "mis-selling".

Retirement Pension/Widows Benefit (RPWB) and Payments

RP/WB resolve queries connected to Contracted-out employment when State Pension or Bereavement Benefit is claimed.

This involves dealing with a variety of correspondence from Pension Scheme Administrators. They also liase closely with areas of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), such as Job Centre Plus and Pension Centres, to make ensure that the correct amount of benefit is paid to contributors.

Payments Section deal with the receipt and reconciliation of monies from responsible paying authorities, such as Pension Scheme administrators for State Scheme Premiums. They also deal with queries involving Non Participating Employment (NPE).

Scheme Cessation

Scheme Cessation deal with COSR, COMP and COMB schemes when they cease to Contract-out. They are responsible for:

• providing Scheme Enquiry Listings to Scheme Administrators to agree membership and GMP calculations
• dealing with enquiries from members of schemes, Pension Scheme Administrators and Trustees
• making sure that members National Insurance records are updated to show the correct Responsible Paying Authority
• dealing with any changes in Administrators or their correspondence address.

Customer Account Management (CAM)

The role of Scheme Cessation is to ensure that the pension rights of all scheme members, past and present, are secured when an Occupational or Appropriate Personal or Stakeholder Pension Scheme ceases to contract-out or winds-up. In the main Scheme Cessation deal with Pension Scheme Administrators, reconciling membership records with National Insurance records on the National Insurance Recording System (NIRS2).

In 2001 Scheme Cessation introduced a new way of working by implementing Customer Account Management (CAM). In short this means all work relating to a specific administrator is dealt with by a nominated team within Scheme Cessation. The principles of CAM are :

• A one point contact in Scheme Cessation, enabling strong working relationships to be built with our counterparts in the Pension Industry.
• A dedicated resource for scheme reconciliation. This has introduced one direct contact to discuss issues and solutions. The continuity of case handling ensures familiarity of scheme issues and assures the scheme administrator that one person has control.
• A documented Joint Agreement / Action Plan about cases to be targeted between Scheme Cessation and the scheme administrator. These ‘priority’ cases are influenced by TPR / DWP legislation surrounding the speeding up of the winding-up of cases, plus the respective targets and pressures placed on each organisation.
• Opportunity to jointly review respective processes and, where appropriate, implement mutually supportive changes and share best practice. Common issues can be easily identified and necessary support and training delivered by IR NICO staff. This includes regular liaison meetings to progress complex cases.

CAM is a constantly evolving regime and continues to be encouraged, consolidated and further developed. If you are a Pension Scheme Administrator and would like to know more please contact via email Gary Bell or email Sharron Ewart or telephone (0191) 2259954.