Guidance

Countdown bulletin 42 - February 2019

Published 11 February 2019

Scheme Financial Reconciliation Update

In Countdown Bulletin 41 we told you about the cut-off dates for scheme financial reconciliation.

This update is to give more important information and dates.

Deficit Schemes

If your scheme is in deficit following our financial reconciliation, a letter will be sent to the address we hold for your day to day administration, that is the address HMRC currently uses for all your paper output.

We currently expect letters to be with you the week commencing 15 April 2019 and we need your payment by 21 May 2019 at the latest.

The letter will show a total amount due only. Individual members will not be listed.

You will be asked to make payment using Bacs using the details below:

Sort code: 20 20 48
Account number: 30944793
Beneficiary details: SFR ENF and SCON (you will need to use the SCON from our letter)

You will be unable to provide a breakdown of your payment (that is the names and National Insurance numbers of the members included in your payment) but we already have this information from our financial reconciliation exercise.

When we receive your payment we will automatically allocate it to the members we identified in our exercise and who were subsequently included in the total amount due on your letter.

We will allocate to oldest debt first until all your payment has been used.

It is important that you pay the full amount due or liability will be re-instated in your scheme for some or all of your members by 26 June 2019.

We will not be giving a list of re-instated members, but if you were in deficit following the 14 January 2019 scan of financials and you have a breakdown of your deficit, this will show the members that we could have potentially re-instated if their debt was not written off through the reconciliation exercise.

Important points to note:

1) We will not request payments by telephone or email.

2) We will write off the debt of schemes who have an overall deficit less than or equal to £1000.

3) For schemes that have more than £1000 deficit, we will write off debt that was raised before 18 March 2013, that is 6 years prior to the scheme financial reconciliation run date.

Surplus Schemes

If you have previously contacted us by requesting your financial position and your scheme is in surplus following our financial reconciliation, a letter will be sent to the address we hold for your day to day administration, that is the address HMRC currently uses for all your paper output. If you have given an alternative address through the surplus or deficit request process, we will use that address instead.

We currently expect letters to be with you the week commencing 13 May 2019.

The letter will show the total amount to be refunded only.

A cheque will be sent to the same address as the refund letter by the 21 June 2019.

The payee name on our cheque will be the scheme name we hold for your day to day administration unless you have provided an alternative payee through the surplus/deficit request process.

Important points to note:

1) We will not need or request your bank account details.

2) If you have engaged with us but your surplus is less than or equal to £3, we will retain your surplus in the National Insurance Fund unless you tell us you disagree.

3) If you have not engaged with us we will retain your surplus in the National Insurance Fund regardless of the amount.

Useful links

Read HMRC: pension schemes reconciliation services for more information.

Earlier editions of the National Insurance Services to Pension industry: countdown bulletins are also available.

Contact details

For general queries about contracted-out pensions, contact the contracted out pensions helpline.

You should continue to deal with your usual contracted-out pensions contact for your day to day enquiries.

General queries about the Scheme Reconciliation Service should be made to the Customer Relationship Team at email: [email protected].