Employer information

Your responsibilities

What you need to know

As a participating employer, you must ensure that you meet the employer responsibilities detailed in the Fund’s administration strategy. These include providing the Fund with accurate pension information such as:

Notifying the Fund of any starters, leavers, retirements and deaths.
Processing ill-health cases.
Deducting the correct contributions (and any additional contributions) from member’s pay and ensuring these are paid to the Fund.
Providing any pay information required to calculate member’s pension benefit entitlement.

As well as:

Meeting employer costs.
Dealing with IDRPs (Internal Dispute Resolution Procedures).
Determining the eligibility of members for auto-enrolment purposes.
Setting and keeping a discretionary policy related to various aspects of the LGPS under review and providing the Fund with a copy.

Find out more by reading the guides available to you - you can find these by logging into the employer area.

A top down view of a table with books about pensions on it.

Administering
the Fund

To improve and enhance our services

To ensure that we are administering the Fund correctly and we continue to improve and enhance the service we offer, the Fund has set the following objectives:

deliver a high-quality, friendly and informative service to all beneficiaries and Employers at the point of need;
ensure contribution income is collected from the right people at the right time in the right amount;
ensure benefits are paid to the right people at the right time in the right amount; and
ensure the Scheme Employers are aware of and understand their roles and responsibilities and carry out their functions in line with legislation, guidance and the Fund’s agreed policies and procedures.
aim for full appreciation of the pension Scheme benefits and changes to the Scheme by all Scheme Members, prospective Scheme Members and Employers;
ensure confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of the Fund’s data, systems and services is protected and preserved.

The aim of the Fund’s Administration Strategy is to:

set out the quality and performance standards expected of the Fund and its Scheme Employers; and
promote good working relationships and improve efficiency between the Fund and its Scheme Employers.

You can read more about the Administration Strategy in the full report.

Rules to join

Joining the LGPS

The Fund is part of the LGPS (Local Government Pension Scheme) which means that the rules are set in law, including which employers can participate. To view the rules, see Schedule 2 of the LGPS regulations 2013.

If you think that you are eligible, please contact the employer onboarding team at [email protected] .

Employer list

Who can join the LGPS

Employers that are part of the Essex Pension Fund include:

Employers	Fund notes
Essex schools (ECC, school including former GM schools)	Pay primary rate and secondary contributions when in deficit as monetary amounts while schools pay total rates.
Southend schools (Southend-on-Sea City Council, Schools including former GM schools)	Pay primary rate and secondary contributions when in deficit as monetary amounts while schools pay total rate.
Academies	All academies and contractors let by academies. Employers are stepped towards paying the same total contribution rate.
Police	Includes Police and Fire Crime Commissioner and Essex Chief Constable. They pay the same primary rate and an equivalent secondary rate (as a percentage of payroll) as monetary amounts.
Town and Parish Councils	All pay the same contribution rate. Those in suspension will pay equivalent secondary contributions as monetary payments.
SLM (Service Level Management contracts)	All pay the same total rate.
Essex Cares	All pay the same total rate.

The policy of the Fund is that each individual employer should be responsible for the costs of providing pensions for its own employees who participate in the Fund. Accordingly, contribution rates are set for individual employers to reflect their own particular circumstances.

However, certain groups of individual employers are pooled for the purposes of determining contribution rates to recognise common characteristics.

You can find the contribution rates information in the 2022 Valuation Report.

Employers

Employer information

Your responsibilities

Administering the Fund

Your responsibilities

What you need to know

Administering the Fund

To improve and enhance our services

Rules to join

Joining the LGPS

Employer list

Who can join the LGPS

Administering
the Fund