5 October 2022
We are delighted to announce that following a competitive tender process, we will be partnering with Hymans Robertson to clear our operational backlogs!
As part of our WPF Business Plan 2022/23 (PDF, 499 KB)(opens new window), Wiltshire Pension Fund has set an objective to entirely remove our operational backlogs (defined as open case-work which is older than our KPI targets). This is something we need to do in order to achieve our vision, and it is directly linked to our strategic vision goal no. 6 - "Accurate up-to-date records". This will not only boost our operational efficiency, but will also ensure improved accuracy in the data we provide to members about their benefits.
We also need to clear the backlogs for a number of other reasons. For example, in preparation for pension dashboards, which will operate by taking information directly from our records, making it more important than ever that we are always up to date.
In addition, we have several longer-term exciting plans for expanding our offering of self-service tools for our members - this is in line with our strategic vision goal no. 14 - "Widely adopted self-service solutions". These will help make it quick, simple and efficient for members to get information about their pension. We already offer our deferred members the option to make choices about their retirement online, and we want to expand this to active members. We also have plans for members to be able to claim refunds online, as well as many other ideas. All these tools also take information directly from the members' records, so in order for them to be effective, the records need to be completely up-to-date at all times.
We take this topic very seriously and there are many other ways in which we work to ensure good quality data - for example we now expect all employers to share monthly data about their members with us via i-Connect, a tool which allows us to perform data validation checks on a more regular basis. We are also working with Heywoods, our software provider, to help drive through the changes we want to see in the online member portal, to make things as effective and accessible as possible for our members.
Working with a third party on the backlogs project will help ensure that we can continue to deliver business as usual, whilst removing the backlogs in a timely manner. We estimate that the work should be completed around September 2023 - although that sounds like some time away, this is years faster than we would have been able to achieve by ourselves.
We are looking forward to this next stage in our operational improvements!
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