INTERNAL ONLY VACANCY. This post is open to existing Leeds City Council employees only. Applications will not be considered from external candidates.

Job Title: Senior Pensions Officer

Salary: SO2 £37,280 - £39,152

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 37 Hours per week

Location: Civic Hall, Leeds

Would you like to be part of something bigger and join us in our ambition to become the Best City, working together as a Team for Leeds. Do your values match ours and do you have something to offer?

Leeds City Council delivers over 500 different services to residents and is dedicated to bringing the benefits of a prosperous, vibrant and attractive city to the people of Leeds. This is a fantastic time to join us.

Benefits of working with us:

We pride ourselves on offering the best employee experience, with a genuine commitment to keeping our colleagues safe and well at work. You can expect great benefits whilst working for us including:

a competitive pay progression structure including generous employer pension contributions
flexible career paths with tailored personal and professional development
support for you, your home and your family including personal, and financial support
hybrid working arrangements (subject to needs of the role) and a flexitime system

For more information about our benefits please see the benefits section of our jobs page.

An exciting opportunity has arisen within the Pension Team for a candidate with strong all-round experience in pensions, payroll and finance. The Pension Team plays a key role in administering the Council’s salary sacrifice schemes and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. This includes supporting the efficient and accurate administration of several major pension schemes, including the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), Teachers’ Pension Scheme, NHS Pension Scheme, and NEST.

This role offers the chance to contribute to critical financial and employee benefit processes, ensuring that employees receive accurate pension and payroll services while maintaining compliance with relevant legislation and best practice.

Your role

You will be responsible for implementing, and ensuring, procedures are in place to support the effective delivery of the Pension Services function. You will also be responsible for the day-to-day management and training of the team ensuring the needs of the Authority, the respective pension schemes, and the individuals are met in relation to all deadlines whilst maintaining accuracy.

You will be responsible for the implementation, administration and promotion of Leeds City Council salary sacrifice schemes including, but not limited to, Home Electronics Car Leasing and shared cost AVC (SCAVC). You will ensure that the payroll input is accurate ensuring the correct reductions are made and the subsequent tax, NI & pension contributions are correct. This includes reconciling salary reductions, interrogation and use of the payroll and finance systems including paying invoices and producing statistics.

You will be familiar with legislation around salary sacrifice schemes and be able to apply the national minimum wage legislation. You will be expected to attend meetings with third party providers, liaise with HR and promote the schemes to Council employees. You will also be expected to ensure compliance with the relevant pension scheme regulations, practices, procedures and associated legislation

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.

You can read more in the following link Leeds City Council Values and Behaviours

Job Description

Job Purpose:

Business Support consists of over 1,000 employees in the Business Support Centre and Business Administration Service. Both of these services provide administration support activities to a wide range of teams and services across the council.

We help the council to streamline operations by redesigning processes, reviewing models of delivery to enable better sharing of resources and exploiting existing or introducing new technology to modernise the way we work.

Our staff use a range of computer programmes and systems to support services which include those working with teams based across the council in a number of different administration roles.

This role is working in the Pensions Services Team which is responsible for ensuring the Council meets its obligations in the administration of the Local Government Pension Scheme, Teachers’ Pension Scheme, NHS Pension Scheme and NEST Pension Scheme.

You will be familiar with legislation around salary sacrifice schemes and be able to apply the national minimum wage legislation. You will be expected to attend meetings with third party providers, liaise with HR and promote the schemes to Council employees. The position is based on the Councils Pension Team, where you will also be expected to ensure compliance with the relevant pension scheme regulations, practices, procedures and associated legislation.

Responsibilities:

Work in conjunction with Senior Managers to develop new policies and methods of working in response to changes in legislation and best practice. Comply with Standing Orders, Financial Regulations and Quality Assurance procedures.
Day to day responsibility for ensuring timely delivery of the service and relevant budgets.
Analyse and collate data for the provision of accurate management information and production of reports.
Identify problems and areas for improvement and offer solutions.
Experience of leading and motivating staff including the planning, organising and delegation of work.
Ability to express ideas clearly with well-developed interpersonal and communication skills.
A commitment to personal development and to keep informed of legislative policy changes.
Knowledge and experience of adhering to procedures and legislation relating to confidential information and financial regulations.
Experience of using IT applications and systems to produce, record analyse and evaluate information.
Knowledge and experience of legislative business, financial, audit and operational requirements of the service, and the impact on its day-to-day work.
Work flexibly and move within service areas – working at different locations depending on service demand
Willing to abide by the Council’s Equal Opportunities and Health and Safety Policies.
Willing to actively participate in training and development activities to ensure up to date knowledge, skills and continuous professional development.

The above list is not exclusive or exhaustive, and the service may require the job holder to undertake duties commensurate with the level of the role. The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and this role will be expected to work within these parameters.

PERSONAL SPECIFICATION ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS: It is essential that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role duties and responsibilities: Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate on the application form that they meet all the essential requirements

Method of Assessment will be through one or more of the following Application Form, Test, Interview, and Certificate

Skills Required

Well-developed experience of working with a wide range of people including face-to-face, telephone and written communication skills – including the processes for dealing with and sharing confidential and complex information.
Working with high levels of accuracy with a good attention to detail.
Experience of working as part of a team and contributing to its development with suggestions for new ways of working.
Experience of working on your own, managing your own workload and using your initiative to adhere to time scales and deadlines.
Experience of using IT applications and systems to produce, record and evaluate information.
Educated to degree level or with the relevant level of experience
Experience and understanding of the importance of providing excellent customer services and experience of dealing positively with challenging situations.
Knowledge and experience of adhering to procedures and legislation relating to confidential information and financial regulations.

Behavioural and other Characteristics required

Understand and embrace Leeds City Council Values and Behaviours and codes of conduct.
Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Best City Ambition of Health & Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon
Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council equality and diversity policies.
Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health and Safety Policies.
Willingness to actively participate in training and development activities.
Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
Participate in appraisal, training, and development activities.
Be aware of and comply with Leeds City Council policies and procedures.
Be aware of and support difference ensuring equality for all, working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding, equality & diversity.
Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person.
The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters.

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