Strategic pension advice for community organisations

Our experienced social-business team can offer support and advice to community organisations on all aspects of strategic-pensions advice.

For community organisations the costs of pensions can make up a significant proportion of your organisation's overall costs. To ensure the future sustainability of your organisation, it is important that community organisations manage these costs as effectively as possible.

Since the roll out of the auto-enrolment pension obligations, many smaller organisations have seen an increase in pension costs and contribution obligations. We work with community organisations to ensure that they are meeting their auto-enrolment obligations.

In many instances social businesses will participate in one of the public-sector pension schemes. When a social business has spun out from local government, it is usually a requirement that they participate in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

When a community organisation is bidding for local government contracts, it is imperative that they understand the pension obligations and associated risks they may be taking on, such as variable contribution rates, additional contributions and exit payments. 

At Anthony Collins Solicitors, our experienced social business team has considerable knowledge on advising and negotiating detailed pension agreements in outsourcing situations within the social business sector. We work in partnership with contractors in the social business sector to ensure that they understand the agreements they are entering into and that they are safeguarding themselves against associated risks. 

Our strategic pension advice for social businesses

Our specialist team of social business solicitors regularly work with community organisations to guide and support them on all aspects of strategic-pension advice for social businesses, including:

• Advising on additional pension contributions to LGPS that can be payable in redundancy and restructuring situations and when staff take early release of pension benefits on grounds of ill health.
• Advising LGPS employers on how best to manage change programmes to minimise the impact this has on redundancy and business efficiency.
• Assisting employers to ensure that decisions on ill-health benefits are appropriately managed to avoid unnecessary costs.
• Helping LGPS manage their cost pressures by ensuring that they have robust policies in place, dealing with the exercise of discretions under the LGPS regulations.
• Creating policies to  outline how certain discretions will be exercised.
• Supporting LGPS employers and pension funds to manage appeals, under the internal dispute-resolution procedure.
• Advising social businesses on their auto-enrolment obligations, whether staff should be enrolled or not, either because their pay varies or because they are not a typical type of worker.

Our extensive experience and sector knowledge means that we are able to advise quickly and cost efficiently, allowing time to be focused elsewhere and minimising the risk of applications to the Pensions Ombudsman.