Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Last Updated: 22 October 2020

Our robust Business Continuity pandemic plan, reviewed specifically in relation to COVID-19, has now been in place since March. Our dedicated Continuity Management Team (CMT) continues to meet regularly to oversee the delivery of the plan in line with every development. Our comprehensive plans have allowed us to continue to fully support and provide ongoing services. As a firm we have transitioned to homeworking seamlessly, with no interruptions in service delivery to our clients, with all our people effectively working from home. The only exception to home working currently is a small number of staff in our Glasgow office to support some of our business critical processes for our TPA operations.

With the latest government guidance being clear that those who can work from home should continue to do so, all of our offices remain closed for the time being. Our CMT has been working on detailed preparation and plans to allow us to re-open safely when government guidance allows us to do so. At that stage we will be taking a phased approach with a limited capacity and our priority will be to support those who need and want to return to the office for wellbeing issues. We know that prolonged home working is a challenge for some, and we’re doing all we can to support our people’s mental wellbeing during what is a difficult time for many.

Until our offices reopen we also don’t expect our people to travel to, or attend, face to face client meetings – we want to protect everyone and we have arrangements in place for all our meetings to be held via video or phone calls. Everyone’s safety and wellbeing remains our top priority. We are also considering how we can lock-in the positives of our COVID-19 experience and move towards a ‘best of both worlds’ future. A particular focus will be our use of video technology to facilitate client and internal meetings, helping to reduce travel, supporting everyone’s wellbeing and minimising our environmental impact.

We have robust and secure systems to enable us to work from home successfully and we don't foresee any sustainability issues if this continues over a long period. Our IT network is stable and we have the capacity for all staff to work from home. Our cyber security controls continue to protect our home workers; these controls offer the same protection as they would in our offices. Our home workers connect to our network through a secure VPN tunnel which uses multi-factor authentication. We have a mobile computing policy which all staff must adhere to, which outlines our secure working practices outside of the office.

We are also in contact with all of our key third party suppliers to make sure that they similarly have robust business continuity plans in place.

Please also be assured that we have contingency plans in place to provide resource should specific client teams be impacted by absence. Using our business continuity planning, we have coverage within our business teams and across locations if we need to mitigate the impact of team shortages. As above, our Continuity Management Team is monitoring the situation.

We are confident that we can support all our clients and provide the services needed from us.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your usual Hymans Robertson contact or email marketing@hymans.co.uk. 

We hope you are coping with these challenging times and wish you and your loved ones continued good health.

Pension Scheme Member Enquiries

If you’re a member of a pension scheme administered by Hymans Robertson please be assured that we’re continuing to work and are making it a priority to process payments and respond to member enquiries. However, the Government have now taken further steps to limit access to offices and may also restrict postal services. As such, for the time being we’d encourage you to contact us by email rather than in writing, even if you’ve already been in contact by post. You’ll find details of your Scheme's dedicated email and helpline number on any correspondence you will already have received from us.  

Don’t worry if you haven’t been in contact recently, or you don’t have the paperwork to hand, below are additional contact details:

For any pensioner payroll enquiries please continue to contact our payroll team on:

Email: TPAPensionerpayroll@hymans.co.uk

Or for general enquires please email TPAenquiries@hymans.co.uk, providing your full name, scheme name and a contact telephone number.

Fraud Guidance

Coronavirus offers criminals an opportunity to approach pension scheme members, savers and investors (especially the more vulnerable in our society) who may be worried about their finances.

Scams are hard to spot and are often disguised with believable websites, testimonials and materials which make them look like the real thing.

If you don’t spot these as fraudulent activity, you could end up disclosing personal or financial information allowing the criminal to misuse your data for fraudulent purposes.

Don’t let a scammer enjoy your retirement, click here for guidance on how you can protect yourself. You can see a list of common fraud techniques here.