Date posted: 01/12/2006
Audience:
- HR Managers
- Payroll/finance managers who are responsible for the contractual arrangements with external payroll providers
Action: You must notify your payroll about the information contained in this EPN and ensure they understand the procedure to follow.
Timing: Immediate
Background
- EPN134 told you about the introduction of Civil Partnerships and the pension rights people have when they enter into a Civil Partnership. The model Office Notice attached to EPN134 advised members with a civil partner to contact their APAC if they wanted to find out more about the pension and compensation provisions that are available. This EPN explains the correct status to use to denote a Civil Partnership on your pay system.
Employer action
- When a member tells you that they have entered into a Civil Partnership, you should take a copy of their registration certificate and forward it to your APAC. Please certify the copy as ‘Copied from the original’ and sign and date it. You must also tell your payroll.
Payroll Action
- We are aware that payrolls are set up in one of two ways to record Civil Partnerships. The table below will help you tell your payroll what to do according to the type of set up they have.
| Payroll set up | Interface (1) | Employer/payroll action where a Civil Partnership is known | APAC action |
|---|
| Your payroll is able to distinguish between Married and Civil Partnership status. |
Full interface |
Supply ‘P’ in the appropriate field. |
(No action for APAC as status ‘P’ will be recognised by PenServer) |
| Standard interface |
Supply ‘P’ in the appropriate field. |
(As above) |
Your payroll is not able to distinguish between Married and Civil Partnership status.
(Some payrolls, for anti-discrimination reasons, are not differentiating between Civil Partnerships and marriage on payrolls. They are effectively showing Civil Partnerships as Married status on the payroll). Please see note (2) below. |
Full interface |
Supply either ‘M’ or ‘U’ for marital status.
As long as the payroll continues to supply either ‘M’ or ‘U’ PenServer records will not be revised by subsequent interfaces.
Blank is not allowed for marital status.
|
APAC amends member record manually to ‘P’. |
| Standard interface |
Supply either ‘M’ or ‘U’ for marital status
As long as marital status continues to be supplied as ‘U’ or Blank, PenServer records will not be revised by subsequent interfaces.
Having initially supplied ‘M’, do not repeat this on subsequent interfaces
|
APAC amends member record manually to ‘P’. |
NOTES
- You should speak to your payroll provider if you are unsure of the type of interface they are using.
- Pension schemes, however, need to be able to distinguish between Married and Civil Partnership status since this may affect benefits paid in the event of the member’s death. The Civil Partnership Act allows pension schemes to provide differences in benefits in this way. It is also necessary to show Civil Partnership status and related benefits on benefit statements.
Reference
This document refers to EPN134
Contacts:
Enquiries about content, distribution or to receive in a different format
employerhelpdesk@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
01256 846414
Employer Helpdesk
Civil Service Pensions
Grosvenor House
Basing View
Basingstoke
RG21 4HG
