Our database holds information on employees, including:
personal information such as date of birth, address and death benefit nominees;
pensionable earnings, contributions and other salary related histories; and
service history (including service in other organisations covered by the CSP arrangements and transfers in from other pension schemes).
8.1.4 The system deals with all processes through a series of workflows. These set out all the individual administrative tasks needed for every area of scheme administration including, but not restricted to, the calculation of scheme benefits and the production of Annual Benefit Statements (ABS).
Responsibility for accuracy of data
8.1.5 As the employer, you are responsible for your payroll/payroll provider passing accurate and timely information to us by means of an electronic interface. The different types of interface that are available to you start at section 8.1.9.
8.1.6 You are responsible for providing information about new employees, leavers, changes to existing employees and pay to your payroll. This information is then passed to us through the interface on a monthly basis in accordance with your scheduled interface delivery date. This date must be agreed with us.
8.1.7 The Participation Agreement (PA) places responsibility on you as the employer to ensure that the personal information used for CSP arrangements is current and correct. You are also required to confirm that we’re holding current and correct data on the Annual Assurance Statement (AAS) and checklist. The PA also refers to payroll information. You must ensure that your payroll system can transfer data to our system in line with the specification of the interface. If you are an employer who uses or will use an external payroll provider, you should ensure they have a compatible interface.
8.1.8 Whether you have an in-house payroll or a contract with an external payroll provider you, as the employer, must be certain that you have sufficient understanding of how your payroll system works to ensure that it creates your interface data as required by us. It also helps you meet your statutory obligations such as those under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Your responsibility for accurate data extends to the Civil Service Additional Voluntary Contribution Scheme, partnership pension and designated stakeholder arrangements.
Types of interfaces
8.1.9 There are two GDPR compliant interface formats for transferring data from your payroll to us which are the Standard and the Manual Interface. Please note that for any employers on the legacy Full Interface, the Scheme Administrator will provide support to migrate to one of the two GDPR compliant formats. You will have to meet the costs for this support.
8.1.10 The Standard Interface must be used for the submission of your Monthly Interface (with the exception of employers with less than 100 employees, who may use the Manual Interface, if development of a Standard Interface is not cost effective).
8.1.11 The Standard Interface contains a number of files that are to be provided to us in a fixed-width record format. The Manual Interface is a pre-formatted spreadsheet that is converted into a set of Standard Interface files by us.
8.1.12 The Developer’s Guide for both interface formats are available and should be requested directly from us. Additional supporting documentation in the form of a Data Validation guide and a Pension Scenarios document, are also available on request us.
Interface validation process
8.1.16 On receipt of your Monthly Interface, we’ll validate the files to safeguard the data integrity. Data Validation Checks (DVCs) will reject records that are considered impossible and warn against records that are possible, but unlikely. The validation checks will also warn employers when it cannot find expected/required records. It is your responsibility to ensure that Data Validation Failures (DVFs) are accurately actioned each month before the submission of your next Monthly Interface. If you work with a third party HR or payroll provider, you must ensure they have a defined process to action DVFs and correct the data on their HR/payroll systems. An interface validation user guide is available from us on request.
More detailed information can be found in our Data Validation Guidance.
Transferring your interface data
8.1.13 Your payroll interface data must be transferred to us by a secure method. We recommend the use of our secure employer portal which has been certified by the Cabinet Office Security Working Group.
8.1.15 You are reminded that any data stored electronically is subject to the provisions of the current Data Protection legislation. Any processing carried out by a data processor (such as an external payroll provider) on your behalf, must be done under a written contract or SLA.
More detailed information can be found in the Standard and Manual Interface documents.
Changing payroll provider – managing the development of the interface
8.1.20 If you are planning to change your payroll provider or develop a new in house CSPS interface, you must give us a minimum of six months notification. You must ensure your interface is developed using the latest version of the Interface Developer’s Guides which we’ll supply on request. You must also ensure your interface is developed in accordance with the Civil Service Pension Scheme rules and passes the Scheme Administrator interface validation process. For planning and managing the development and testing of your CSPS interface, you will require IT and Payroll expertise. The timetable for the development and testing process will vary according to the size and complexity of your payroll; this must therefore be considered carefully to ensure that your interface process is in place before your new payroll goes live.
8.1.21 You will have to meet the costs arising from the development and testing of the interface. All of the our testing costs must be agreed with us before any development work commences. Please note that if your new payroll provider already has an existing electronic CSPS interface, testing will still be needed to make sure the interface can handle your employees’ data accurately.
CARE Year End and submission of five day Pension Input Period (PIP) data
8.1.24 In order for us to issue Annual Statements and to provide you with information to support the completion of Annual Reports and Accounts, you must have provided us with the following:
Your regular interfaces, no more than two days before or after your agreed submission date.
All data to be up to date and correct for all employees by the end of the scheme year (31 March).
Confirmation of CARE Year End closure (closing down the financial year for CARE scheme members) by the agreed deadline us.
Provision of the additional five-day PIP data, by the agreed deadline.
