Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Last Updated: 15 May 2020

We have robust Business Continuity Plans in place, including a pandemic plan which we have reviewed specifically in relation to the COVID-19 situation and which has now been invoked. Given things are changing rapidly our dedicated Continuity Management Team is meeting regularly to oversee the delivery of the plan in line with every development. Our comprehensive plans will enable us to continue to fully support and provide ongoing services. 

Our offices are closed and all our people are working effectively from home. The only exception to this is a small number of staff in our Glasgow office to support some of our business critical processes for our TPA business. It will be July at the very earliest before the firm will consider the question of re-opening our offices and when we do start to re-open, it will be in phased way, keeping in mind wellbeing and safety.

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.

In line with Government recommendations to limit travel, we won’t be holding any face-to-face meetings with clients during the process of lockdown easing. Instead, we have arrangements in place for all our meetings to be held via video or phone calls. 

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 contact or email marketing@hymans.co.uk. 

We hope you are coping with these unprecedented challenges 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.