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The trm Report - May 2007 Raising Standards of Pensions Administration (RSPA) recently celebrated its fifth birthday with its most successful Annual General Meeting, attended by over 60 people and excellently hosted by Pinsent Masons. The main focus of the meeting was to alert the industry to two major RSPA initiatives and I would like to take this opportunity to spread news of those initiatives even wider. Member Survey RSPA have developed a member survey which is unique in the industry. The survey, which is available online to anyone, is designed to find out what members of occupational pension arrangements really think of the service that they receive from their pensions administrator. By rolling out the survey across the whole industry, RSPA will be able to create a national benchmark of the feeling of members across the country. For the first time we will be able to tell whether all those stories of maladministration, errors and bad service are the indeed the exception or as is often implied, the norm. Furthermore, by measuring feedback twice a year, RSPA will be able to see whether service to members is improving and which areas require greatest attention so appropriate attention can be paid to improving those areas. Trustees and providers will also be able to compare their own performance against the national benchmark by simply applying for, and asking their members to use, a five digit reference number when completing the questionnaire. Thus, for the first time trustees and providers will be able to see whether the service they deliver is above or below average and where they need to improve. All of this is available free of charge. The development and delivery of this survey to the industry will give us a true measure of the ultimate test; what members think. It also means that, for the first time, cost is no longer a barrier to surveying members of even the smallest schemes.. The strength of the survey depends totally on getting enough members of pension schemes to complete it, a challenge I believe the whole industry needs to embrace. Everyone involved in pensions administration, whether Trustee, Administrator or consultant should look to find ways of getting members of their schemes to complete the survey. We have found that completion rates increase when Trustees (most commonly the Chairman) write to members asking them to participate in the survey. Whether this is done by enclosing a small card with every bit of post sent to members, by including a paragraph in your letters, a section in your newsletter or popular report or any other means you can think of to get your members to participate, I would encourage you to do it. If you want to know more about the survey and how it could help you to better manage your scheme then please visit our website at www.rspa.org or contact us through the site and we will be delighted to help. General Statement of Administration Standards The second initiative is the drafting of a “General Statement of Administration Standards”. For the first time we have attempted to document what constitutes good administration and what Trustees and Administrators need to do to deliver an excellent service to the people who really matter; the members. This document is now available on the website for consultation and we would welcome any comments whatsoever on its content before consultation closes on 30th June. Once consultation is complete we will take account of all the comments and put forward the first version for use by administration providers and trustees. How the Standard is used is really a matter for individual trustees and their providers to agree, although sponsors of RSPA will be expected to adhere to its principles. Much of the Standard is designed to encourage an open, honest and comprehensive dialogue between Trustees and Providers with a view to creating a partnership aimed at the highest possible level of service and a continuous improvement of that service into the future. We very much look forward to a robust consultation process so that we can create a document that has some teeth but that also commands general acceptance across the industry. Putting the two together The Member Survey and the General Statement of Standards create a powerful partnership in the battle to improve service and improve the perception of our industry. We envisage that the findings of the Member Survey will feed into the Standard and that the Standard will evolve in future to reflect the views of members. Together this will encourage Trustees and providers to focus on the issues that Members tell us are important. Similarly we expect the existence and widespread adoption of the Standard to improve the level of service that members receive. I passionately believe that the level of service offered to members of pension schemes is better now than it has ever been but you would not think that given the negative headlines. We may correct that misconception. If we can show that members generally feel the service they receive is good and if we can show that over time it is improving, we may have the first tentative steps towards re-establishing real confidence in our industry. Whilst we cannot under estimate the issues that our industry faces in terms of funding, the level of benefit provision and the support of companies, we cannot deny the important part administration plays in the way members perceive the value of their benefits. …and Finally Associated with these new initiatives we are looking at the way in which RSPA is managed and we are reviewing our charitable status. With this in mind we are keen to appoint three new trustees to develop the service that we provide to the industry. Anyone interested in becoming a trustee or using the survey should contact us through the website or contact me on john.reeve@rspa.org if you want to. |
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