McCloud Data Collection Exercise – For Employers & Payroll Providers
What is the McCloud remedy?
When the Government reformed public service pension schemes in 2014 and 2015 they introduced protections for older members. In December 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled that younger members of the Judges’ and Firefighters’ Pension schemes have been discriminated against because the protections do not apply to them.
The Government has confirmed that there will be changes to all main public sector schemes, including the LGPS, to remove this age discrimination. This ruling is often called the ‘McCloud judgment’ after a member of the Judges’ Pension Scheme involved in the case.
Further information on the McCloud remedy is available on the Scheme Advisory Board’s website: SAB – LGPS
Data Required from Employers
Implementing the McCloud remedy means that we will need to hold information on hours worked and break in service details for all eligible employees covering the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2022.
Since the scheme changed in 2014 we have not required employers to provide this information. However, we will now need to collect this information dating back to 1 April 2014.
We are requesting hours worked and break in service details for all employees covering the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2021. All employers will be providing monthly data to the Fund from 1 April 2021 which will provide us with the data we required for the 2021/22 year.
In order to collect the data in a consistent format we have produced a standard template for all employers to complete; if you require a copy of the template please contact the McCloud Project Team.
Data should be provided for all employees who were active members of the LGPS on 1 April 2014 or who were active any time after this date.
In respect of each member for the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2021, or, if the member left active membership of the scheme earlier then to the date of leaving active membership. Where the member leaves and re-joins active membership, this should also be included on the template spreadsheet.
The data required includes contractual hours per week and effective dates during that period. Employers will also be required to provide details of breaks in service due to unpaid absence.
As mentioned above the data in respect for the period after 31 March 2021 will also be required via Monthly Interfacing(MI), please ensure your organization is on MI and the relevant contacts who upload the monthly files via our portal are aware that ALL hour changes and service breaks must be recorded on those files from 1 April 2021 onwards.
A McCloud Q&A document and accompanying Data Collection Notes that explains how to complete the template are also available and can be provided on request if necessary. For additional FAQ’s please scroll down the page.
Timeframes
As you can appreciate, there is a lot of information that the Fund needs to obtain, and then update on our database, in order to enact the remedy for eligible members. In order to assist us with this task we request that all templates are completed and sent to us as soon as possible.
We will assist employers as much as we can with this process so if you have any queries or questions about supplying this data please contact us as soon as possible at pensionsystems@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
Additional FAQ’s:
What information do I need to provide?
You are required to complete two sets of data sheets within the template regarding any employee who was an active member of the CPF on or after 1st April 2014 in relation to he following 2 areas:
Hour changes history
NI number
Surname
Forename/s
Date of birth
Employer Number
Employee Membership Number
Payroll Reference Number
* Date hours started
* Date hours ended
* Part-time hours worked(Fraction)
* Whole-time equivalent hours
* Job Title
Must be repeated for a history of all changes.
Service Breaks
NI number
Surname
Forename/s
Date of birth
Employer Number
Employee Membership Number
Payroll Reference Number
* Service break start date
* Service break end date
* Reason for service break
* Part-time hours during service break
* Whole-time equivalent hours during service break
* Did member elect to purchase lost pension in full
* Did member complete the contract?
* Job Title
Must be repeated for a history of all changes
Can the Fund provide me with a list of members they believe I need to submit data for?
You must provide data for all members who were active on and after 1 April 2014 – the Fund will assess whether they are affected by the McCloud remedy.
Does Monthly Interfacing incorporate the reporting requirements for 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022?
Monthly Interfacing was built to allow for hour changes and service break information to be submitted via this process and will be the method we record the relevant McCloud data required members active after 31 March 2021. With this in mind, we will not send a further McCloud Data request for the April 2021 – March 2022 period.
Do I have to include details of those members that have received a full refund?
No, the Fund does not require data relating to those employees where you have already made payment of a refund.
Do I need to include data for casual members?
Yes, average annual hours will need to be submitted for each year (or part year where the member has left). This should be calculated in the same way as it was pre 2014.
Members working on a casual basis may not have fixed weekly/monthly hours of work.
Please see the example below defining how the average annual hours are calculated:
| Month | Hours Worked During the Month |
| April | 9.00 |
| May | 5.50 |
| June | 20.75 |
| July | 7.25 |
| August | 8.00 |
| September | 5.00 |
| October | 9.50 |
| November | 6.00 |
| December | 7.75 |
| January | 4.50 |
| February | 15.50 |
| March | 8.25 |
| Total Hours worked in the year: 107.00 |
Calculation:
Total Hours worked in the year / Weeks in Year = Average Hours Per Week
So based off the example above the calculation would be as follows:
107.00 hours / 52.143 weeks in years = 2.05 hours per week
The Average casual hours that needs to be stated on the template for the given year: 2.05 hrs / 37.00 hrs
What must I enter for an employee who has been in full time service throughout the entire period and remained active after 31 March 2021?
In this scenario only a single row of data will need to be entered on the Service Breaks sheet and Hour Changes sheet of the template. The start date (column 12) should be defaulted to 1 April 2014 and the end date (column 13) will remain blank.
Where a member joined the fund after 1 April 2014 you should input the actual date of joining please.
What is classified as a service break?
Service break data is needed for all periods of authorised unpaid leave, trade disputes and unauthorised leave.
Authorised unpaid leave, in respects to McCloud, includes:
• any period of unpaid additional maternity or adoption leave, generally from week 40 to week 52, but may start from week 27
• any period of unpaid shared parental leave
• any period of unpaid parental bereavement leave
• any period of unpaid leave the member chooses to take,
for example, time off for a sabbatical or where a member who works in a school wishes to take leave in term-time
Where a break for one of the reasons listed above has occurred you must insert the reason the member had a service break on the data template based on the below coding:
A = Authorised unpaid leave.
B = Absent due to trade dispute.
C = Unauthorised leave.
Service break data is not required for ordinary maternity leave, paid additional maternity leave or paternity leave
I have been including hour changes and/or service break information on the monthly interfacing files prior to 31 March 2021, why do I have to submit it again?
Monthly Interfacing was introduced in 2019 and therefore only covers a small portion of the data request period. We therefore need to recreate a full service history from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2021 to ensure all the data is captured accurately.
My organisation has left the fund and are no longer active, do you need the data from us too?
Yes, we will require the data from all employers who have actively participated (Had at least one member paying contributions) in the fund from 1 April 2014.
Where the employees of my organisation have previously been employed elsewhere and were subject to TUPE when the contract moved to us who will need to provide the data for the staff employed up to the date they were TUPE’d over?
You are required to submit data for the period the employees began working for your organisation as well as prior to the TUPE. If you have this information please include it and if not then please liaise with the previous employer to obtain it.
If you have difficultly getting this data please contact us and we will try assist where possible.
I have a member of staff who is on unpaid maternity leave and do not yet know whether they will purchase an APC, do I include them on the service break tab?
Yes, you should include the member on the service break tab. If the member has not yet purchased an APC, then this should be shown as ‘N’. In the event, the member does purchase an APC on their return, we will make this correction on their record when we receive the APC application form.