3 June 2026
Kent Police Pension Board
1. Introductions and apologies
Attendees
| Name | Organisation |
|---|---|
| Neil Mennie (NM) | Chair, Kent Police Federation |
| Jonathan Castle (JC) | Kent Police Chief Finance Officer |
| Toby Clark (TC) | XPS Client Relationship Manager |
| Matthew Keating | Client Services Lead- XPS |
| Bob Pollard (BP) | NARPO |
| Hayley Ryder (HRy) | Head of Payroll & Pensions |
| Peter Steenhuis | Superintendents Association Representative |
Apologies
| Name | Organisation |
|---|---|
| Grahame Hall (GH) | XPS Group |
| Dan Pearce (DP) | Kent Police Federation General Secretary |
| Kevin Shiel (KS) | XPS Partner, Relationship Manager |
| Sharon Ware | Executive Assistant to HR / L&D |
2. Conflict of interest
No conflicts of interest were declared.
3. Previous minutes
The previous minutes were approved.
4. Actions and updates
Full updates are provided on Action Log. Some actions are reported on below.
5. Pension and Governance Manager
After K Kirby’s departure, A Hook was placed in the role for the interim but her contract has now ended. The person appointed to the role subsequently declined the offer so H Miller is now providing some cover for the role, assisted by two members of Police Staff. Discussions are continuing between the CFO in Kent and Essex on how to proceed with this recruitment.
6. Scheme Manager appointments
Nothing to report.
7. Breaches of law procedure
No new material breaches.
8. XPS SLA performance - report given by Matt Keating
There has been a successful migration from Altair to the new platform Aurora and training has taken place to familiarise staff with this. The migration to Aurora has led to an increase in communications received by phone, email and via the new ‘My Pension’ portal which launched after Aurora went live. 47,500 members have registered with the ‘My Pension’ portal and there has been 65,000 calculations run by the self-serving capabilities. Approximately 50% of the registered members have contacted the various teams at XPS via email, phone or live chat which has amounted to over 26,000 calls, 8000 call backs and 343 live chats. The most recent call drivers have mainly been around digital access and assisting with online support, with some queries about tax issues. XPS will look to add these areas to the FAQ section of the platform. Since going live there have been five enhancements added to the portal.
In addition, the XPS One portal has also launched which is linked to the Aurora platform and where the XPS teams and the Kent Police Pensions department can access statistical and engagement data.
The first phase of the pension increase project has been completed and run through the Aurora platform.
Regarding the McCleod cases and the continued decision cases, the immediate choice element of the project has been completed with the implementations of completion currently being processed, along with the work on the ‘continued decision’ cases as they occur.
A tool has been developed for the ABSRSS that will allow the remaining statements to be produced and the 2026 ABSRSS are on track to be processed through the Aurora platform.
From a Kent perspective, there has been a significant increase in cases since the last quarter, affecting service delivery which XPS have been transparent about in their recent communications to the clients. This has resulted in 15 additional staff being assigned to help support the teams with any tasks that could prove detrimental to members, such as payments and retirements, with pending retirements receiving preference. A client update on the 13 May explained that it is anticipated that XPS will be working in retirement date order until July. This date may be impacted by the SCAPE changes.
Although payment of the retirement lump sum within seven days was low in February, there was an increase in payments within seven days in March and April. Regular monitoring meetings are ongoing with senior management to review the performance, with the aim to improve this in May and June. With Kent specific cases, there has been a positive trajectory from March and April, with 100% of lump sum payments being made within seven days.
B Pollard informed the meeting that some members had experienced the loss of the nominated persons’ details on their platform (post migration to Aurora) along with details of the expected widow’s pension. M Keating explained that these are part of the phase two developments which should have been rolled out by May. Recent improvements to the platform also include the marital status and title update, the spouse details page, the nomination information option, the notional start date/ transfer-in information and the change of address functionality. There will be further enhancements to the site which will be communicated to the members.
XPS will be contacting another cohort of members who have not registered for the Aurora platform in July to encourage them to join; this amounts to 5500 members in Kent. P Steenhuis highlighted that many of the members of the Superintendents Association were unaware of the Aurora platform, so he felt that the comms going out to members needs to be stronger. M Keating confirmed there had been a phased transfer of members to the new platform, with those who had previously registered with the old platform (MSS) invited as the first cohort to register. This was done to allow for increased contact to be dealt with promptly by XPS. The remaining active members will be contacted in July. N Mennie confirmed that an increase in communications to members and an increase in members able to access Aurora would be welcomed. M Keating will feed this observation back to XPS. H Ryder suggested that M Keating contact her when the second phase communication is due to be released as she will spotlight this, as will B Pollard.
Members will be able to use Aurora for estimates and projections but will still need to contact the XPS teams directly for options for remedy. Several attendees highlighted inaccuracies on the Aurora platform including the start date of their pension, when they joined the force and the amount of their final pay. However, P Steenhuis and N Mennie felt that the platform was useful, although it was felt that the ‘live chat’ function could be more obvious on the introductory page.
Action 01/26 - T Clark will take away and address feedback regarding the visibility and accessibility of the live chat/web chat feature post-login on the ‘My Pensions’ portal.
There were seven complaints received in Q1 over a variety of themes, of which four were closed in April whilst the others are being actively dealt with.
Decision- It was decided that names are not required to identify any of the cases in M Keating’s presentation, in order to abide by GDPR regulations.
All statements for the Immediate Choice (IC) members have been produced and questions have been raised with the Home Office / NPCC regarding the 21 Deemed Elections for Kent. During May, XPS will follow up with the members approaching the 12-month window who have not returned their election choice.
The scheme manager declaration has been received for the opt out cases, so the team will now respond to these. With regard to the ABS and ABS RSS Issuance and the deferred DBS and DBS RSS Issuance, this was in a strong position at the end of the quarter. Where the data exists, the statements for the remaining members will be produced before the 2026 project. M Keating will update H Ryder when the statements have been produced.
The GMP Reconciliation/ Rectification and Equalisation project was paused at the reconciliation stage as the McCloud Remedy took precedence, however proposals are now being put together which are being discussed with the framework provider, MPCC and BLC.
XPS’s Annual External AAF Audit report has been received and re-accreditation has been achieved with the Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA).
9. Remedy
The continuous decisions are currently being dealt with and the scheme manager’s discretion has been received to move forward with these. This is affecting 14 people, who have all received communication explaining the current position and that they will be receiving their CDRSS soon. This will potentially allow the members to do a contribution adjustment. N Mennie felt that the communication was quite difficult to understand and so these letters may need some clarification. H Ryder felt a more pictorial explanation could be issued or a verbal explanation given.
Signed legislation has been issued by Kent Police to XPS so XPS will work through the declarations and send them out. As delegated scheme manager, J Castle sought the board’s approval for having pursued the legislation in line with MPCC guidelines; this was confirmed by P Steenhuis.
P Steenhuis queried whether the members who are due to retire imminently, who wish to buy back into the scheme would have to find the payment in advance or would this be calculated and taken out of the potential computation.
Action 02/26- Matt Keating will clarify and communicate whether buy-back payments for scheme members can be taken from the lump sum at retirement.
10. Public Services Pension Act 2013 section 249B internal controls framework
The Pension Dashboard can now be rated green.
11. Pension dashboard
XPS remain on track to have connected all of their schemes to the Pension Dashboard by 31 October 2026, however there is still no firm date for the dashboard to go live although it is predicted that this will be in 2027.
12. SCAPE discount rate - change to PPS 1987 commutation factors
Following the recent change, the main issue appears to be that XPS cannot pay out any lump sums until members have had their revised options in order for them to make an informed decision, as the change in the SCAPE discount rate means that members may opt to have a smaller lump sum in favour of a larger pension size. XPS made system changes within three days of the announcement and are now re-issuing the options to members in order of their retirement date, who will then be paid in the order that they respond back to XPS. This has led to some members retiring without any certainty about how much money they will receive or when this will be received. K Shiel had indicated that the options should all be issued by the end of this week which M Keating felt was a reasonable expectation. J Castle felt that members should be written to with a timescale of when their options will be issued by. T Clark felt that the situation should settle down after the initial spike in activity.
B Pollard confirmed that NARPO have been running pre- and post-retirement courses which should give potential retirees an idea of their potential benefits. P Steenhuis praised XPS for the swift changes post announcement. N Mennie expressed his concern about the sudden announcement of a change that could potentially negate members payments and the concern this caused although it was recognised that this was out of XPS’ control.
13. Any other business
P Steenhuis queried whether there was a timescale document available for members detailing when to obtain their quotes, calculate the tax liability and apply for retirement that could be communicated to members so that they apply in sufficient time.
Action 03/26- Toby Clark will develop and implement a call-to-action or guidance on the My Pensions portal to inform members about the recommended timeline and steps for requesting formal retirement figures, thus managing expectations.
Next meeting: Tuesday 13 October at 1pm to 3pm.