GMPE member communications  made easy with launch of free industry toolkit

A communications consortium of some of the UK’s largest defined benefit (DB) schemes has partnered with insight-led communications specialists Quietroom to develop a suite of free to use GMP equalisation (GMPe) communications available to all schemes.

The communication toolkit, which includes an animation, can be downloaded at www.gmpeasy.co.uk and has been developed to help schemes explain what GMPe means in a clear, simple and engaging way to their members. As well as being developed by communications experts the material has been tested with members to ensure it’s simple and easy to understand.

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Speaking on behalf of the group of DB schemes partnering on the project, Kirsty Aljewicz, Head of Member Communication at Brightwell said:

“Communicating to members about GMP equalisation is something we’re all going to have to do but it’s far from simple.

“As we’re all grappling with this issue, we thought it would be great to work together on this challenge and develop something which not only benefits our own schemes but benefits the whole industry.

“The hope is that this toolkit will make communicating GMP easy peasy!”

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Simon Grover, Director at Quietroom, said:

“It was fantastic to be asked to help deliver this project and it’s been great to be working with the partner schemes to develop and test a set of communications that will really help schemes explain GMPe to their members. Whether schemes decide to use the communications as is or decide to tailor them for their own needs, we hope they will be a good starting point for the complex communications challenges that schemes are facing.”

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Kim Gubler, Chair of PASA, commented:

“We know communicating GMPe is a real challenge because it’s such a complex subject, and so we’re really pleased to see an industry initiative which will support schemes explain how GMPe affects pension savers in a straightforward way. We believe this could drive consistency in communication across the industry, which would be incredible. This will be particularly important where people have multiple employers across their working lives. They could be receiving GMPe communications from several different sources, and if they all look different this will be so confusing. GMPe may be very complicated, but your communications don’t have to be.”