The EOYC process is completed for the year to 31 March by employers. Its purpose is to provide assurance that all employee and employer contributions have been correctly calculated and paid over to the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme.
A copy of the EOCY should be forwarded to your auditors so that they can undertake the necessary checks before issuing their report (called an agreed-upon procedures report) which is due to be submitted to Teachers’ Pension by 29 September this year.
Over the last couple of weeks we have been busy contacting our clients and asking for all the information we need to complete our work on the figures in the 2023 certificate. As well as requesting the detailed reports from your payroll provider we ask a series of questions which help us to identify areas where complications may arise. For example, a large turnover of staff increases the risk that the pension rules will misapplied as individuals join or leave the payroll.
There are many different types of errors that can occur in the application of the teachers’ pension. Here are some examples we have encountered:
- Non-deduction of pensions in respect of pensionable allowances or deducting contributions in respect of an allowance that is not pensionable.
- Full time equivalent salary being calculated incorrectly, resulting in the wrong contribution rate being applied.
- Incorrect adjustments of backdated pay awards.
- Not calculating contributions correctly in relation to overtime and maternity payments.
- Arithmetic errors on the return itself.
We report any errors to Teachers’ Pension in an appendix to our agreed-upon procedures report. We have to perform detailed checks and there are inevitably follow-up questions to help us understand what has happened. So, close team-working between the trust’s finance team, your payroll provider and your auditors over the next few weeks is vital to turn the work around and resolve all queries quickly.
The next step
If you have any questions regarding this blog, please contact Liz Searby.
