Dear all,
It is my privilege to have been appointed as chief executive of West Midlands Fire Service, and as a result to have assumed the role of Scheme Manager of the West Midlands Firefighter Pension Scheme.
Whether you are an active scheme member or have retired, your contribution to our communities has been of the highest importance, and I fully recognise the need to provide you with a good standard of service in relation to your pension. I also expect that you will always be treated with dignity and respect and that our pension team is treated in the same way.
As I have already said to staff within the Service, I prize moral courage – the preparedness always to do the right thing, however hard, to be accountable, and never to walk on by or turn a blind eye. With that in mind, I think it important to say I recognise that we need to do better in relation to our pension provision.
The Pensions team has been, and continues to be, in a period of change – be it a change of team members, or a change to legislation. As a result, there is a backlog. Whilst the team is working hard to support scheme members, this has, understandably, caused unwelcome frustration to leavers from the Service and retired members.
Last week, I authorised additional budget for this team; and we are now actively recruiting to a payroll and pension manager post as well as two or three additional, temporary, pension practitioners, solely with the intention of addressing this issue.
The team continues to work hard on the range of complex issues relating to Pension Remedy, which include not only the creation of individual Remedial Service Statements for over 800 affected scheme members, and the implementation of a Contingent Decisions process, amongst a number of other statutory changes. I am sure you can appreciate just how much additional effort this involves, on top of business as usual.
We will be providing a short FAQ and further links to this site to provide scheme members with more information in the near future.
I hope that this update is helpful and finds you all well. It comes with my very best wishes.
Yours,
Oliver
Chief Executive Officer and WMFPS Scheme Manager