ARCOIreland members will be aware from a previous posting that the Government has decided to establish a Payroll Shared Service Centre (PSSC) for the Civil and Public Service. The PSSC, which will be under the control of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, aims to consolidate and integrate payrolls from the 18 payroll centres currently delivering payroll to 53 Departments and Offices. All Department of Defence payrolls – including those for retired military personnel in receipt of pensions – will be migrated to the PSSC.
ARCOIreland raised the following concerns in relation to PSSC with the Department of Defence earlier this year:
- The difficulties a move towards online pension services would present for some ARCOIreland members.
- The need to maintain a named point-of-contact to deal with pension related queries from ARCOIreland members post-migration to PSSC.
- The fact that civil servants, with no previous knowledge or background in matters specific to Defence Forces pensions, could become responsible for administering military pension accounts.
The latest information provided to ARCOIreland indicates that while the move to establish a PSSC is still progressing, its implementation will be significantly delayed. This is due to unforeseen complications that have arisen and which are taking longer than anticipated to overcome. Pensions’ Section of the Department of Defence has also identified issues and is working to resolve these with the PSSC Project Managers.
ARCOIreland has been assured that the function of calculating entitlements will remain with the Department of Defence and the facility of contacting those dealing with entitlements will also remain with it.
The bottom line is that a date for the move to the new system is by no means imminent. Further information will be posted as it becomes available.
