Can a Parish council have more that one pension scheme

Question

We have employed a full time clerk who is enrolled in the LGPS.
We are considering employing a general handy person to do litter picking weeding and general limited skilled work. If the weekly payment put them into the range where we would have to enrol them in a pension would that have to be the LGPS or could we set up a separate scheme.?

Answer 1

Why would you want to setup a separate scheme? Because it's cheaper?

Clerks are generally female, general handy persons are generally men. Opening yourself up to a gender  discrimination claim.

Comments

Thank you for your answer. Nothing to do with gender (I said handy person) Going forward it would be about cost. One clerk but possibly several handy persons and LGPS is very expensive.

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I do tend to agree that different pension schemes can open you up for a gender discrimination claim in the future, particularly if the contribution rates (employer and employee) are different

Answer 2

I took legal advice on this some years ago, and was told is was acceptable to have the mixed pensions - the clerk on the LGPS, which she was on when she arrived, with the other staff continuing on NEST.

Comments

Thank you for the reply, interesting. I am wondering if this was before the law changed and auto enrollment was introduced?

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This was after auto enrolment was introduced.

Answer 3

I think this idea will eventually come back to bite you because it says to your handy person/people that you value them less than other members of staff.  Imagine what that will do to their loyalty and motivation to do you a good job.  I think its false economy in addition to it being discriminatory.

Comments

Its absolutely abpit cost. Nest is something like 3 % and LGPS in my District is 25.5% Employer contribution !|!
But if you value your staff and want retention of staff you will have to invest .