System Transition

Change to go-live date reminder

As we have previously confirmed, the go-live date for the new Employer Self-Service portal (ESS) will be 24-07-2023. This was confirmed in the latest edition (Spring) of the PAST newsletter that was issued to just over 1300 Fund contacts, including all current Hub users on 04-05-2023. If you haven’t received your copy, you can access it the Download section.

Please make sure you read the newsletter because it contains a large amount of critical information and actions that need to be taken prior to, and during, transition.

Further ESS training dates added

We are pleased to confirm that we have expanded our ESS support to include two full-day training sessions in July along with drop-in sessions throughout August at the Fund offices at i9 in Wolverhampton. These are offered alongside our regular webinars – new dates for which have now been added. All are bookable by clicking on the relevant links below.

General Navigation

This crucial session demonstrates the basic functionality of Employer Self Service (ESS), including logging in, and a high-level overview of data submission.

Running Estimates

Delegates will learn how to run estimates for the following retirement scenarios:

• Normal retirement
• Early retirement
• Redundancy
• Ill-health
• Flexible retirement

Reporting & Processes

Delegates will learn how to run the following reports:

• active member lists
• managed users
• employer queries
• contacts
• membership statistics
• interface reports
• cases due/cases outstanding.

And how to complete the following tasks:

• submit a query to the Fund
• amend your organisation's contact details
• manage ESS users.

Data Submission

Delegates will learn how to:

• Submit a monthly data file (including contribution data, new joiners, and immediate opt-outs)
• Submit leaver notifications
• Submit member changes (including hours changes and service break data).

ESS Training Days at Fund Offices

This all-day session at the Fund's offices in Wolverhampton will give you a complete overview of the new Employer Self Service platform, including logging in, data submission, running estimates and reporting.

ESS Drop-in at Fund Offices

These informal 'surgeries' will be your opportunity to come to WMPF at i9 and talk to us about any issues or queries that you have with the new admin system, ESS.

I am pleased to confirm that a new set of virtual training dates are now live, and are available to view on Eventbrite, or by selecting one of the dates below. Please note, you do not need to attend the sessions in 'order'; the numbering is a suggested order, but you are able to attend any session at any point. Additionally, there are multiple presentations of each session i.e., The 'General Navigation' session content will be the same on each date that it is scheduled, so you only need to attend one session from each set.

Virtual Training Sessions

1. General Navigation

• 19 April,2023 - 1:30pm
• 27 April, 2023 - 10am
• 5 May, 2023 - 11am
• 10 May, 2023 - 9:30am

2. Running Estimates

• 31 May, 2023 - 9:30am
• 7 June, 2023 - 1:30pm
• 13 June, 2023 - 10:30am

3. Reporting & Processes

• 21 June, 2023 - 10:30am
• 7 June, 2023 - 9:30am
• 13 June, 2023 - 1:30pm

4. Data Submission

• 6 July, 2023 1:30pm
• 11 July, 2023 9:30am
• 19 July, 2023 1:30pm

As you are aware, the Fund and its partner EQ have been working together to bring our employers, our members, and the Fund a new pensions administration software system that includes new self-service portals for employers and members.

Thank you to those of you who have attended the briefing/training sessions we have held to date; we have seen a good level of engagement across our employers. We value your input into the Pension Administration System Transition (PAST) project and have been actively gathering your feedback and comments in relation to the project. We have listened to your views and comments and, as such, we have taken the decision to defer the roll-out of Employer Self-Service (ESS) to give you more time to prepare for the transition. Our new go-live date will be in Summer 2023: this move will allow you to attend more training prior to the change; give you the opportunity to review your current practices and align them to ESS's requirements; and give you more time to carry out the essential data-cleansing that will be required to ensure that only accurate member data is migrated. Please look out for the next edition of the PAST Newsletter for further details, including more training dates.

In light of this update, we have taken the decision to not shorten the timescale for the provision of February's monthly data file, and have reverted to the 19^th March deadline. Please ensure that your February 2023 data file, and associated contributions, are submitted/paid to the Fund no later than 19^th March 2023.This change also affects Member Self-Service: our Member Services Team will be communicating with members throughout the project to keep them updated.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support. If you have any queries or comments in relation to the PAST project, please contact us at WMPFEmployerSystemSupport@wolverhampton.gov.uk.

Happy New Year!

ESS Training: New dates added

New dates have been added to our suite of ESS training, and will continue to be added as demand dictates. We strongly encourage every current Employer Hub user to attend at least one webinar or face-to-face session for each topic. The full suite of training is accessible here, or you can click on the dates and times in the table below to be taken to each specific session. Please note that each presentation of a specific topic is a repeat, so you will only need to attend one session for each topic, but you are more than welcome to attend multiple presentations of the same topic if you wish.

Virtual Sessions:

At Fund Offices (i9):

Hub Access

Current active Hub users will have access to ESS created automatically for them - in order to ensure continuity of access, if you are a current Hub user, please ensure that you have logged into Hub at least once between now and transition to ensure that you will have a user account in ESS created automatically. Users that have not recently accessed Hub will not have an ESS account created, and will have to have access re-established by the Superuser in your organisation.

Monthly Submissions

Whilst the current monthly submission file layout will remain, there are some key process changes that you need to be aware of:

• To prevent the Fund having to contact employers with queries after your files have been submitted, more validations will be run before you submit your file to the Fund, giving you the opportunity to investigate and rectify issues in real-time.
• Your data file must include the 8-digit pension reference numbers for ALL members - '0' will no longer be acceptable. If the member is a new joiner to the scheme, the field must be left blank.
• Your data file must include a unique payroll number for each post/pension record per member.
• Most validations are run against members' records during the process, and not after submission to the Fund.
• Your monthly data file, which must still be submitted as a .CSV file, will require the header row to be included.
• Error resolution will be done by downloading, amending, and re-uploading a resubmission file.
• Your remittance advice will not be produced, and the contribution data will not be posted to member or employer records, unless all errors have been cleared.
• You will not be able to submit your next file until the previous file has been submitted. For example, if you have not uploaded, validated, corrected errors.

General Pension Administration

It is critical that all routine pension administration is up-to-date prior to migration; therefore, please can you ensure that the following final deadlines are noted and adhered to;

Now

• Respond to all data queries:
  • Monthly data feedback
  • Outstanding S15 queries
  • McCloud data queries
• Notify us of any significant membership changes
• Check your current Hub users
• Log into Employer Hub to ensure your access remains active
• Check your active member lists

Training sessions are now available to book!

The first group of virtual and on-site Employer Self-Service training sessions have been scheduled, commencing in December 2022. We strongly encourage every current Employer Hub user to attend at least one webinar or face-to-face session for each topic. The full suite of training is accessible here, or you can click on the dates and times in the table above to be taken to each specific session. Please note that each presentation of a specific topic is a repeat, so you will only need to attend one session for each topic, but you are more than welcome to attend multiple presentations of the same topic if you wish.

We are currently working closely with EQ to create an employer platform that works for you. The transition Employer Self-Serve (ESS) platform will bring many benefits, not least: 

• Efficiencies through greater automation 
• Greater levels of management information 
• Refined member changes and leaver notification processes (workflows) 
• Self-serve employer contact updates 
• Secure, two-way messaging between the Fund and ESS users 
• Scheme information at your fingertips 
• Enhanced dashboards for improved error resolution 

In addition to the above enhancements, users will still retain the ability to complete the following tasks: 

• Maintain your own ESS users 
• Run member benefit estimates 
• Submit monthly contribution data and joiner information 
• Search for member records 

As well as a new employer platform, EQ are delivering a new pension administration system for WMPF (Compendia Touch) and a new member platform - Member Self- Serve (MSS) with the transition date for all users (WMPF, employers and members) set for April 2023. Our Member Services Team will be reaching out to all members over the coming months to support them in the transition. 

To ensure that the transition to Compendia, ESS and MSS goes as smoothly as possible, we are asking all employers to act now to ensure that the data we hold for you and your members is accurate, so please, if you haven't already, complete the following tasks: 

• Submit your 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2021 McCloud Data - the last date that the process will be available for the submission of this data is Wednesday 30th November 2022.
• Log into Hub and run the following reports; Contact List , Active Member List, and the Hub User Report - check them for accuracy and notify us of any changes 
• Ensure your monthly data submissions and contributions are up to date 
• Ensure that you have no outstanding joiners 
• Ensure that you have no outstanding leavers 
• Notify us of any significant employer changes; for example, academy conversions, academy trust changes, large-scale member movements, existing contracts ceasing, new contracts awarded 

During this period of transition, the Fund will work closely with employers to ensure that expectations and requirements are effectively communicated, planned for, and actioned. Please be alert to the fact that current and future submission requirements may be subject to change, but the Fund will provide appropriate training and support to help you prepare for the transition to the new portal and its processes; keep your eye on future communications about the transition and share the details of any training sessions with individuals at your organisation who will need to attend.