Islington Council has seen its pension auto-enrolment opt-out rate exceed 10% between May and July 2025, according to a recent report presented to the Islington Council Pensions Board.
The report in the Public Reports Pack showed that of the 205 new members auto-enrolled into the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), 21 chose to opt out. This brings the total opt-out rate to 10.24% for the three-month period. The report did not provide a typical or expected opt-out rate to compare this against.
The opt-out percentages for each month were:
- May: 8.20%
- June: 13.46%
- July: 5.00%
It is not known what the primary reasons were for employees opting out of the LGPS during this period, nor does the report specify any actions being taken by Islington Council to address the opt-out rate or the financial impact of the opt-out rate on the Islington Council's pension scheme. The report also does not provide any comparison of Islington Council's pension auto-enrolment opt-out rate to other local councils or the national average for the LGPS.
While the report highlighted a slight decrease of approximately 3.4% in key processes and a 2% decrease in overall performance of the Pensions Team due to their focus on the Pension Fund Valuation and Annual Benefit Statements, it also noted positive feedback. The Pension Office received seven communications thanking Pension Administration staff for their service, compared to three complaints. The report did not specify a plan to improve the key processes and performance metrics. The Public Reports Pack did not provide further details on actions being taken to maintain or improve service levels.