i-Connect
Contents
What is i-Connect?
i-Connect is a secure platform which automates the submission of pension data from your payroll system to the Pension Fund each month.
Member information moves from your payroll system and updates directly to the Surrey Pension Fund's record system via a secure platform, and will automatically identify all starters, leavers, and changes to member details.
Our aim is to roll out Monthly Data Collection to all of our Employers by March 2026 so that we will not require the provision of a Year End Annual Contribution Return from any employers, as all of the information will be provided via i-Connect monthly submissions.
The Benefits of i-Connect
i-Connect will provide significant benefits to you, your members, and the Surrey Pension Fund, including:
- Secure data transmission
- Accurate data submissions
- Fewer data error investigations
- No need for year-end Annual Returns
- Reducing the need for submission of data via individual forms or spreadsheets
- Reducing the time spent on pensions administration
The Support We Will Provide
Our aim is that all our employers will be using i-Connect for most individual data submissions at some point. We have successfully gone live with the main Surrey Payroll Team at the beginning of this year. Therefore, the team will be in a good position to roll this out to all employers, hopefully in the near future.
We will contact you to determine a suitable transition date sometime in the future. We will also provide support for your move to i-Connect via training workshops, meetings, and our dedicated project team.
Monthly Data Collection
The i-Connect portal links Employers/payroll providers into our Fund.
Monthly Data collection includes: -
- Personal Data (address changes, marital status, surnames, etc…)
- Employment details (job title, hour changes in employment)
- Contribution and Pay information (member and employer contributions, Career Average Revalued Earning (CARE) pay and additional contract contributions)
- Leaver Information (when someone leaves the Scheme)
- New Joiners to the Scheme (all the relevant information to create them a record in Altair)
Methods of i-Connect submissions
Uploaded Spreadsheet
- Employer/payroll provider creates a .csv spreadsheet with pre-defined specification of requirements and uploads this via i-Connect portal.
Online Return submission
- Designed for Employers submitting monthly data returns for less than 30 Active Scheme members.
- Monthly online return pre-populates each month and the user (Employer/Payroll provider) checks to see nothing has changed and submits.
Both methods then go through a series of validations and checks before being packaged up and loaded into Altair accordingly.