Equality impact assessment - Wiltshire pension fund

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1. What is the name of the function, policy or service that is being assessed?

Wiltshire Pension Fund

2. What are the aims of the function, policy or service? Whose needs it is designed to meet? What are the current priorities?

The aim of the service is to provide an excellent pension service to our 40,000+ members and 65+ employer organisations as cost effectively as possible.

Priority areas for the service are many and diverse (eg. to maximise and stabilise investment returns, to minimise the cost of the Scheme to the employer organisations, etc). However, in this context of equality and diversity, priority areas are to ensure that all members have a good experience in their dealings with the Fund, that their pension record is maintained correctly and that their pension is calculated and paid accurately when the time comes.

It is worth noting at the outset, that the benefits payable from the Wiltshire Pension Fund are almost exclusively determined by the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations issued by the (Department for) Communities and Local Government, or in a small number of cases, by the scheme member’s employer. Therefore, whilst there may be perceived discrimination arising from the benefits package, this is rarely, if ever, in the hands of the Fund to adjust.

3. In what ways might this function, policy or service affect some groups of people differently? Might some groups find it harder to access the service? Do some groups have particular needs that are not well met by the current policy or service? Please ensure that you comment against each of the dimensions listed below and where no issues are identified that you state this clearly against the relevant dimension.

Age: Our very elderly pensioners sometimes find it more difficult to understand some of the complex aspects of their pension.

Disability: Persons with sight or hearing difficulties might have some problem accessing our service.

Physical access to County Hall is no longer a problem for our customers (following DDA works, etc). If customers have problems getting to County Hall and it is really necessary to meet, we offer to visit them at home.

Gender: No issues identified

Race: No issues identified

Religion/belief: Persons who have religious beliefs which shape their view of investments) might not be entirely comfortable with the Fund’s investment strategy.

Sexual orientation: No issues identified

4. What evidence do you have for your judgement? Is there evidence of public concern (e.g. complaints)? Have staff raised concerns? Is there local or national research to suggest that there could be a problem?

We are not aware of any complaints or concerns that have been raised by scheme members (or members of staff within the section) in relation to any of the headings above, or indeed, any other issue in this context.

We are aware that are/have been national conversations about the Local Government Pension Scheme itself and equality issues around some the benefits of the Scheme, particularly in the context of the “New Scheme” planned for April 2007. These touch on areas such as partnership status, ill-health provisions and access to the scheme for part-time females. However, these are matters of national regulatory policy which are not within the control of this Fund.

5. How and with whom have you consulted with as part of your assessment? What were the results? Have you published the results of that consultation? If so, where?

There has been no consultation with scheme members or potential members in relation to this assessment – that would not seem to be a good use of public resources given the limited scope for poor equality in this service and the fact that there are 40,000 members.

However, as part of a forthcoming refresh of the Fund’s communications with its members, we will be taking into account the views of the members.

6. If you have found that the function, policy or service might have an adverse impact on a particular group of people, can you justify this?

Age

The Wiltshire Pension Fund Team are used to dealing with these cases, and if necessary, meeting up with the person to try and explain the situation. We also attempt to make our communications as clear and understandable as possible.

In most cases, a very elderly or slightly confused person will have a friend or relative helping them with these matters.

Disability

For the visually impaired, the Wiltshire Pension Fund website has been designed within the Council’s policies on accessible websites and our letters conform to the recommended font sizes, etc.

For those with hearing difficulties, we can communicate by visual means, rather than using the telephone. We could also use the Type-Talk facility, which involves communicating over the phone via a third party who types the conversation which is then displayed on a special phone in the client’s home.

Religion/Belief

Given that the benefits of the Wiltshire Pension Fund are based on statute, regardless of the local investment policy, the impact of the investment policy falls on the employers and ultimately local taxpayers, not on the individual members of the Scheme.

The legal and fiduciary responsibility of the Fund is to minimise and stabilise that cost. It is impractical, alongside this, to seek to accommodate the investment preferences of individual members of the Fund as there are 40,000+ members.

The Fund does have a formal policy on Corporate Governance, Socially Responsible Investment and Engagement with Companies.

7. If the impact cannot be justified, what do you intend to do about this? Are there changes that you could introduce which would make the function, policy or service work better for this group of people? Is further research or consultation required?

We are not aware of any “unjustified” impacts at this time.

8. How will you monitor the take-up or impact of the function, policy or service in future?

We have no evidence to suggest that the take-up of the Local Government Pension Scheme in Wiltshire is being hindered by any equality issues that are within the control of the Fund. As already hinted, the Fund’s discretion over benefits policy is very limited, but we will carry out a review to identify if there are any patterns of take-up/non take-up are apparent which might relate to equality issues in these areas.

9. What actions do you plan to take as a result of this EIA? Please include target dates for completion of actions and resource implications where possible

• Investigate use of and make Pensions Team aware of Type-Talk facility for use with customers who have hearing difficulties.
• Consult on this EIA as part of the forthcoming communications refresh with scheme members.
• Review Administering Authority Discretions to ensure they are not causing any equality issues.

10. If no actions have been identified in section 9 above, please state when a further review of this assessment is planned

April 2010

11. Name of person completing form

Head of Pensions

Date assessment completed

11 October 2007

12. Name of senior manager approving assessment

Chief Finance Officer

Date assessment approved by senior manager

11^th October 2007

Last updated: 14 May 2009