Date posted: 27/11/2017

Audience

  • HR Managers;
  • Pensions Leads;
  • Payroll Managers;
  • Internal Communications Managers.

Summary

  • In case of missing or incomplete pension records, employers are required to undertake a search of their available records.

Action

As an employer, please ensure you:

  • read, note and act on the following guidance when dealing with cases of missing pension records;
  • provide contact details that can be shared with members, once Civil Service Pensions have conducted a pension trace and no record can be located;
  • these details should be sent to - Pension.Tracing@mycsp.co.uk 

Timing

  • Immediate.

Detail 

Civil Service Pensions has a responsibility to provide members with pension benefits. To enable this, Civil Service Pensions is reliant on the former administrator and both former and current employers passing on accurate pension records.

When dealing with cases of missing pension records, Civil Service Pensions will undertake a search of all available storage records to locate any pension benefits.

Where a pension record has not been provided, any potential pension benefits cannot be processed. In these instances, Civil Service Pensions will advise members to contact HMRC to establish their entitlement to benefits under the scheme and if confirmed, they will then need to contact their former employer to find missing pension records.

Further guidance for members on how to locate their missing pension benefits can be found here: www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/pension-tracing/

With missing pension records, your responsibilities as the current employer, or where you have taken on the responsibility for a previous Government Department, are:

1. To undertake a search of all available sources of information.

Consider:

  • Payroll systems
  • Archived payroll records
  • Microfiche records
  • Member’s Personal file
  • HR records
  • Contacting the member directly (this includes requesting the member to contact HMRC to obtain their earnings and contribution history)

2. To supply any required data to Civil Service Pensions in the standard format, using your manual interface spreadsheet and notifying Civil Service Pensions of the leaving terms by completing the Request for Service form.

3. To update the member directly and to progress each case until a resolution or end is reached.

Other information

If you require further assistance regarding the content of this EPN, please contact Pension.Tracing@mycsp.co.uk or your SDM contact.

If you have a question about the distribution of EPNs, contact employerpensionnotice@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

This notice is for employers and should not be issued to scheme members. 

Published:
27 November 2017
Last updated:
24 April 2023