A brief guide for new employers

It’s really important that you keep us updated with any changes which could affect:

• your participation in the Fund
• our working relationship
• your responsibility to provide us with pension information

Some of the most common changes we must be informed about are detailed below:

Please keep us updated if your contact details change. You should ensure that if any member of staff leaves you inform us so that we know who to direct pension queries to.

If you decide to outsource your payroll to a third party please make us aware as soon as possible. Choosing the wrong payroll provider can be a costly mistake.

We recommend you read our ‘Outsourcing your payroll guide for LGPS employers’ before you make any decisions.

If you are considering outsourcing a service, such as for a cleaning or catering contract, you should let us know in advance. Any prospective contractor will need to meet certain requirements to take on pension responsibilities. There are also costs involved that you need to be aware of.

We must be informed if you are:

• a school converting to an academy
• a multi-academy trust taking on a new academy
• an academy school changing multi-academy trust

We will need to contact the Fund actuary and make you aware of the costs involved.

You must tell us if you believe you may exit the Fund. You can become an exiting employer if you are:

• a designated body (Schedule 2, part 2) and your last active LGPS member leaves or retires, or you decide to offer an alternative pension provision to your employees in the future
• an admitted body (Schedule 2, part 3) and your last active member leaves or retires, or your contract comes to an end
• a Fund employer (Schedule 2, part 1, 2, 3 or 4) who becomes insolvent

This list is not exhaustive. If anything occurs that may affect your ability to provide pension information to us you should make us aware.

For more information on exiting the LGPS, please refer to the Roles and Responsibilities document.