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Methods of submitting data
There are 2 data submission methods available to i-Connect users:
File upload
You can report directly from your payroll system onto our i-Connect CSV template. You can then submit the template directly through the secure i-Connect portal to our pension database. There’s also a separate template to enable payroll providers to submit data for multiple employers on a single submission.
Online return
If you have less than 30 members and / or your members are paid the same every month, our online return method may interest you.
i-Connect guides you through 8 screens. You only need to edit data that differs from the previous month.
If you are yet to contact us regarding your i-Connect onboarding process, please email pensions.regs@derbyshire.gov.uk as soon as possible. We'll then provide you with the relevant template to complete, so the testing process can start.
Our testing process
When you start your i-Connect onboarding process, we’ll test a few months' worth of submissions to get you up to date. We’ll then provide you with access to the i-Connect portal so you can submit data yourself.
Your data returns submit directly into our pensions database. This means it’s important to test the quality and formatting of your data. Testing helps to avoid any serious issues when you're submitting monthly data.
Until we provide you with access to i-Connect, you should continue to submit all employer forms as you would have prior to the implementation of i-Connect. This is because we conduct testing in our dedicated test environment to begin with. Until we have satisfied our testing criteria, we’ll not load any data into our live environment. It’s important that you continue to send all forms as usual during this process to help ensure a seamless experience for your employees.
When you 'go-live' on i-Connect, we'll email you to confirm which forms you no longer need to complete.
Reporting help
When you start to onboard to i-Connect, we provide you with guidance documents. This guidance confirms that there are 4 data categories:
- Mandatory
- Conditional
- Optional
- Ignore
What to include in the ‘PENSIONABLE_PAY’ field
Please include the following in both the monthly and cumulative 'year-to-date' pensionable pay figures when you report through i-Connect:
- Monthly salary payments made to the member
- Assumed Pensionable Pay (APP) where applicable
- Additional allowances (as per the 2014 regulations)
- Any additional payments / arrears paid that month that are pensionable payments (for example, a pay award)
If you submit data using a 'file upload', the fields this relates to are:
- PENSIONABLE PAY
- MAIN - - SECTION CUMULATIVE - - PEN PAY
- 5050 SECTION CUMULATIVE PEN PAY
The total monthly pensionable pay you report in the 'PENSIONABLE_PAY' field needs to reconcile to the pensionable pay you report on your CR1 contribution return form.
How to report term-time workers (payment days / weeks)
It’s our policy to reduce the Full Time Equivalent salary by payment days / weeks. Please do not reduce the weekly working hours by payment days / weeks.
Other Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Funds can apply this the other way around. It’s important that we remain consistent with our policy, otherwise this could directly impact a member's final salary benefits.
Auto enrolment exercises
When you go through an auto-enrolment exercise, please ensure your next i-Connect submission includes all opt ins from this exercise.
Where employees have opted out on entry to the scheme, you should also report an opt-out date for these employees.
It’s important that you report these changes so we can keep a record of those that have opted in and out. This helps us when responding to queries from members and The Pensions Regulator.
Reporting leavers
When a member leaves the scheme, you need to report their date of leaving. Please ensure the 'reason for leaving' closely resembles those available on our L1 - leaver form. This will help our team to quickly identify what we need to do with the member's pension record.
The reasons for leaving on the L1 – leaver form are as follows:
- Opted out
- Compulsory Transfer (TUPE)
- Under 55 Resignation / Redundancy / End of Contract
- Dismissal (including ill health capability)
- Gross Misconduct Dismissal
- 55+ Redundancy / Efficiency Dismissal
- Flexible Retirement
- 55+ Retirement / Resignation / End of Contract
- Employee Reaching Age 75
- Ill Health Retirement
- Death in service
If you provide a reason for leaving which doesn’t closely resemble one of the options available on the L1 - leaver form, this is likely to result in a query.
You should always submit L1 - leaver forms without delay if the:
- leaver is age 55 or over
- reason for leaving is ill health retirement
- reason for leaving is death in service
Late forms cause delays to processing benefits payable to the member (or beneficiaries).
We’ll ask you to complete an L3 - leaver form where leavers:
- are under age 55
- are leaving on any reason other than ill health retirement or death in service
- have service prior to April 2014
Some of our members have service before 1 April 2014 following transfers in and joining their records together. For these cases we identify when an L3 - leaver form is required and include these in our monthly queries.
Where members are under age 55 and they don’t meet the criteria for a leaver form, we can close the pension record from the information i-Connect provides.
During your onboarding process you still need to send L1 - leaver forms for all leavers.
Service breaks
Where members have received reduced pay but haven’t met the criteria for APP, you should report a service break to the Fund for the affected period.
Where members have multiple service breaks within the same period, please email details of this to pensions.tech@derbyshire.gov.uk as soon as you have completed your current months' submission.
Member contact details
On your i-Connect submissions please report a member's current home address.
The following member information isn’t required:
- personal or work email address(es)
- personal or work phone number
- work address
If a member wants to access our member self-service portal My Pension Online, they can complete the access form for My Pension Online. This process adds their email address to our records.
When a member completes the access form, they give consent for us to hold emails and phone numbers on their pension record.
Full Time Equivalent Salaries
When you provide the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Salary, this should be the FTE as at the end date of the month, plus any additional allowances built up during the year (as per the 2008 regulations).
On previous year-end returns, we asked you to report the FTE and additional allowances separately as per the 2008 regulations. This is now a single column on i-Connect submissions. We use the figure you provide in this column to work out final salary benefits on the benefit statements we send to active members every year.
The base rate FTE should be reduced for payment days / weeks.
How to report data for members with multiple roles
Where members have multiple roles, you need to separate the data on your submission per role.
If multiple roles are paid under the same payroll number, you should provide a unique post reference for each post. i-Connect uses this unique post reference to match to the relevant record on our database.
Please get in touch with us if you need any further information on this: pensions.regs@derbyshire.gov.uk.
Deadlines for submissions
When you are 'live' on i-Connect, the submission deadline is the 19th of the following month. For example, you need to submit April data no later than 19th May. This is the same deadline as CR1 form submissions.
If you can't meet this deadline due to situations outside your control, please contact us as soon as possible to make us aware.
Monthly queries
Following each of your submissions, we run a range of data quality reports and send you any queries as soon as we can. Whilst these reports check a variety of data items, it’s your responsibility to ensure the data you submit is accurate. You should aim to resolve all queries before you submit your next file.
If you submit data on behalf of multiple employers, it’s your responsibility to investigate any queries and provide responses as soon as possible.
If you have any agreements in place about completing forms for the Fund (for example, you're a payroll provider and the school completes their own forms), you should pass on any requests for forms sent to you by the Fund.
Reconciliation
Following each submission, we’ll attempt to reconcile the monthly i-Connect data against the contributions return CR1 form you submit for the same employer and period. If we’re unable to reconcile the data against the CR1 form, we'll query this and ask you to submit a revised CR1 form or details as soon as possible.