579 of 6915 employers have not provided a return, which means we don’t have up to date service history for over 73,000 employees. It’s extremely important that this is returned to us as soon as possible.

It’s important to ensure that only individuals who are employed by a participating employer are included on the Annual Return.

There’ve been a few issues regarding current returns which we wanted to share to help provide future returns.

1)    There has been an increase in the number of cases where employees of non participating employers are being included on the returns of participating employers, albeit they may be part of the same umbrella organisation. Examples of this include:-

• A non accepted independent school’s teaching staff has been included (incorrectly) in a multi-academy trust Annual Return. 
• Employees in a not for profit teaching organisation on an Academy’s Annual Return. 

          Where such instances arise, measures will be taken to refund contributions and a person’s service record will be adjusted accordingly.

2)    Employers must also ensure that only those in a teaching role employed by a participating employer, or in an organiser role, where specifically allowed for in the regulations, are included on the Annual Return.  School bursars and those involved in school administration or financial management are not covered by the regulations, even if they were once previously employed in a teaching role.

3)    Individuals who have a “financial interest” (i.e. a shareholding in the school) in an accepted Independent school should not be included on the Annual Return.

It’s important that Auditors scrutinise the membership of the Scheme as well as the contribution levels against a person’s contributable salary or pensionable earnings.