Admitted and other Scheduled Bodies (Tier 3 Employers) in the LGPS

Introduction

In support of the Board's work plan for 2016-17 it is seeking to identify the potential funding, legal and administrative issues and liabilities relating to admitted and scheduled bodies that do not benefit from local or national tax payer backing (Tier 3 employers).

For information Tier 1 employers are defined for the Board’s purposes as being local authorities and other public bodies with direct local tax payer backing. Tier 2 employers being Academy Trusts.

The work will be split into two concurrent phases:

1) The Board has worked with LGPS administering authorities to gather data regarding the number, membership, liabilities and covenants of these employers.

2) Separately the Board has appointed Aon to assist it in further analysis in this area..

Update February 2018

At the meeting of the Scheme Advisory Board on 26th February 2018, Aon updated members on progress of their work commissioned by the Board to review current issues faced by the LGPS and associated stakeholders in relation to third tier employers participating in LGPS funds in England and Wales.

Aon outlined their extensive engagement with the main third tier employers’ sectors including higher education, housing associations and charities as well as other key stakeholders, and confirmed that they are now ready to analyse the survey and interview data. The Board was content with the progress made by Aon to date and agreed that they should now proceed to prepare their draft report for consideration at the next Board meeting on the 27th June 2018.

Update September 2018

LGPS third tier employers - At the meeting of the Scheme Advisory Board on 27th June 2018, Aon presented members with a summary of the final draft report commissioned by the Board to review current issues faced by the LGPS and associated stakeholders in relation to third tier employers participating in LGPS funds in England and Wales. The Board is anxious to point out that the report makes no attempt to make any recommendations. Instead, it outlines a range of issues raised by stakeholders and how they envisage these concerns being resolved.

Tier_3_employers_in_the_LGPS_FINAL.pdf (102 pages, 2.65MB).

The Board agreed that the report should be published and that a small working group of Board members will be established to review the concerns expressed by third tier employers in the report and the ways in which they could be resolved. The working group will be tasked to report back to the Board later in the year with a set of recommendations for further consideration. Once approved, scheme stakeholders will be given the opportunity to comment on the Board’s recommendations before any formal approach is made to MHCLG Ministers for changes to the scheme’s regulations or guidance. A copy of the report can be found here with details of the third tier employers’ project here.