UK - Trustees of the Home Group Pension and Life Assurance Scheme are seeking a pension administration provider for the £57m (€64.5m) defined benefit (DB) scheme.

Home Group, a social housing agency based in the North of England, is involved in a number of DB schemes, including contributions to The Pensions Trust scheme, and the Cumbria Local Government Scheme.

However, the organisation is now seeking a pension administration services provider for its largest scheme, the Pension and Life Assurance Scheme, which has 400 active members, 492 deferred members and 360 pensioners.

The tender notice revealed Home Group would require the successful supplier to take on a range of responsibilities, including general administration of member transactions and annual processing of data.

Home Group also confirmed the provider should report to trustees, and would also be in charge of record keeping, pensioner payroll and accounting services, such as the submission of tax returns.

Figures from Home Group's latest annual report for 2007-08 showed at the end of March last year the Pension and Life Assurance scheme had assets of £56.8m, but liabilities of £81.2m leaving a deficit of £24.4m.

The pension fund has an investment mix of equities, bonds and gilts/other, and the employer contribution rate is 11.5% of pensionable salary, "plus monthly payments equivalent to an annualised rate of £1.9m, payable for a total of 20 years and increasing annually at 4.67%".  

However, the full actuarial valuation of the scheme, as at 31 March 2008, is still ongoing and once the figures have been finalised the organisation confirmed it would "give consideration to future funding levels based on actuarial advice".

The pension administration contract will last for an initial period of five years, and the closing date for tender submissions is 20 March 2009, with further information available from the Home Group.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Nyree Stewart on + 44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email nyree.stewart@ipe.com

Topics