PENSIONS PARTNERS WITH STAFFCARE FOR ... - NOW: Pensions

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For immediate release: Monday 13 January 2014

NOW: PENSIONS PARTNERS WITH STAFFCARE FOR CLIENT ONBOARDING AND MEMBER COMMUNICATIONS

NOW: Pensions, the independent multi-employer trust has partnered with award winning employee benefits software specialists Staffcare to handle the onboarding and distribution of member communications for its participating employers. Building on NOW: Pensions’ existing administration platform, from this month, Staffcare is providing a fully automated onboarding experience for employers that sign up with NOW: Pensions.

Each payroll has its own NOW: Pensions portal hosted by Staffcare. Using this portal, employers can easily upload employee data and have it validated before processing begins. The Staffcare system then guides them through each stage of the auto enrolment process with online tutorials to support them every step of the way.

The NOW: Pensions portal: 

Handles and distributes communications to employees for each category of worker

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Manages and records opt-outs and opt-ins

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Provides automatic alerts to ensure key tasks are never forgotten

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Produces employer reports

As auto enrolment gathers pace, the volume of companies reaching their staging date will rise exponentially. This year, there will be an eightfold increase with 30,000 companies alone staging over a four month period in mid-2014.

The portal and underlying Staffcare system has been designed to withstand large volumes of employers. In conjunction with NOW: Pensions’ online sign up tool, employers will have a portal created automatically following their online signature of the NOW: Pensions contract. This automatic process allows up to 2,500 clients a week to be signed up, each within very short timescales. In addition, the underlying system is able to handle tens of thousands of employers all processing multiple payrolls each month.

Assessment functionality is available within the Staffcare portal but, in the vast majority of cases, NOW: Pensions recommend that this is done within the payroll system to minimise processing times.

NOW: Pensions is currently working with a large number of payroll software providers to improve integration. Morten Nilsson CEO of NOW: Pensions said: “The success of auto enrolment in 2014 will hinge upon having smooth, efficient online systems to onboard large volumes of employers quickly and easily. “Our online sign up service coupled with the NOW: Pensions portal built by Staffcare ensures that we are in a strong position to effectively manage the large numbers of employers who will be reaching their staging dates over the coming months and years.”

Graham Jarvis, Managing Director Global Business & Workplace Savings at Staffcare said: “We are delighted to be partnering with NOW: Pensions to create a market leading auto enrolment and pensions solution. Our combined expertise has created a fully automated end-to-end solution, which is essential in order to handle the number of companies staging next year and to provide them with an affordable and engaging experience. We believe that NOW: Pensions is perfectly positioned to secure significant market share, both direct to employers and through the intermediary channel.”

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For further information: NOW: Pensions Amy Mankelow NOW: Pensions Tel: +44 203 640 9075 [email protected] Victoria Leyton Lansons Communications Tel: +44 207 294 3620 [email protected] Staffcare Limited Graham Jarvis, Managing Director Workplace Pensions and Global Business Tel: 07788 739217 [email protected] Debra Edwards, Head of Marketing Tel: 01372 387005 [email protected]

NOW: Pensions www.nowpensions.com @NowPensions NOW: Pensions is a multi-employer trust. The investments are managed by NOW: Pensions Investments, a subsidiary of ATP in Denmark. The NOW: Pension Trustee Directors, whose role is to safeguard the interests of members, comprises well-known industry figures with different areas of expertise:

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Nigel Waterson, former Shadow Pensions Minister Imelda Walsh, former Group HR Director of Sainsbury’s John Monks, member of House of Lords and former General Secretary of ETUC and TUC Christopher Daykin, former Government Actuary Win Robbins, former Head of European Fixed Income at Barclays Global Investors

NOW: Pensions is committed to developing a better workplace pension provision in the UK by offering a simple, high quality, cost efficient and systematically risk managed pension product that delivers better retirement savings for UK employees. With over 45 years’ experience providing Denmark’s working population with stable and consistent pensions returns, NOW: Pensions is set to transfer the knowledge acquired in Denmark to the UK pension market. Charges are just £1.50 per month administration charge (reduced administration charge of £0.30 - £1.00 to be applied during auto enrolment phasing for lower earners) plus a 0.3% annual product investment management charge, with no hidden charges. In April 2013, NOW: Pensions became the first master trust to attain the NAPF’s new PQM Ready Standard. The benchmark shows employers that NOW: Pensions is a well governed pension scheme with low charges and good member communications. The ATP Group www.atp.dk Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension (ATP) / Danish Labour Market Supplementary Pension is a statutory pension fund. It was established as an independent entity in 1964 with the objective of ensuring a greater retirement income for the Danish population. ATP has since developed to become one of the largest pension funds in Europe and the largest pension fund in Denmark. Together with the tax-financed basic state pension, ATP provides basic income security in old age for the Danish population. ATP covers almost the entire Danish population representing 4.8 million members and 160,000 employers. In addition to the ATP Scheme, the ATP Group administers a number of pension and social insurance schemes, including several for the Danish state. The ATP Group total assets under management amounted to DKK 602bn/approximately GBP 67.5bn at 30 June 2013. ATP invests in a wide variety of assets globally. Investment categories are broadly: equities, interest rates, credit, inflation and commodities. Staffcare Staffcare provides software for benefits communication, enrolment and administration and licenses its software to many of the UK’s leading Consultants and Providers including Aviva, Hargreaves Lansdown, KPMG and Mercer. Over 270 organisations communicate and manage their employee benefits on Staffcare’s software. Based in Leatherhead, Surrey, United Kingdom, Staffcare employs 55 people in the UK. It was established in July 2004 and is a privately owned company. For more information visit www.staffcare.net