Tracing & Mortality Screening
Improve the quality of your data and keep records accurate.
We offer full tracing solutions and mortality screening. These services enable you to protect your scheme and its members from fraud. Clean and up-to-date member data is key to the efficient running of all pension schemes – the Pensions Regulator’s record-keeping guidance highlights the impact of poor data management – with significant additional costs and reputational risk. Data integrity is key to both specific scheme goals and an increased regulatory focus.
The shift of regulatory focus and technological advances in the finance sector, in particular for pension and insurance providers has shone the spotlight on data quality.
1) Tracing
You want to engage with your customers, keep them informed about the benefits they have with you, but all you receive is the all too common, but disappointing ‘not at this address’ from Royal Mail.
Customers change homes and jobs often throughout their lifetime and it can be difficult, especially with long-term products like pensions, to keep in touch. But with current legislation and an increased focus from the Pensions Regulator, it’s important you don’t ignore it.
How we can help
Our highly experienced team of professionals cross reference the newest and extensive range of databases. We can provide a quick electronic trace as well as in depth full tracing – and achieve over 90% success rates regularly. We can also monitor address changes for deferred members on a quarterly basis, so once you’ve cleaned your address data, you can keep it clean.
We’ll give you confidence in knowing that our traces are fully verified before we report back to you. We’ll provide full addresses in the UK or abroad, and in most instances, contact telephone numbers, email addresses, forenames and spouses’ information.
How we do it
We assess your records against those held by a large number of reputable sources, any data used is fully consented. Our key data sources include:
Current Commercial Electoral Roll | Companies House Register |
Historic Electoral Roll | Director Register |
Postcode Address File (PAF) | Shareholder Register |
National Change of Address (NCOA) Suppress | Land Register |
NCOA Update | General Register Office (GRO) Birth Indexes |
BT Directory Solutions’ OSIS | GRO Marriage Indexes |
Phone Plus | Consumer Credit Data |
Once we’ve checked data against all these sources, we’ll check for any discrepancies. We want to provide you with the most accurate data we can. Once we’re comfortable the data we’re giving you is correct we will give your data back to you so that you can update your systems.
We realise how important this is to you, especially, considering 11% of the UK population moves every year and 33% every 4 years.
2) Mortality Screening
Over half a million deaths are registered in the UK each year. It’s estimated that a staggering £200m every year is paid out to deceased pension scheme members. Mortality screening reduces scheme overpayments, identify beneficiaries, accurately calculate benefits and facilitates good governance.
How we can help
We pride ourselves on conducting these checks discreetly and efficiently, in a timely manner with a high rate of accuracy without dispatching a life certificate or any other member contact.
When we carry out mortality screening, we’ll also clean your data using Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) and the current Commercial Electoral Roll. This corrects addresses and verifies continued residence wherever possible. In fact, we check and verify all high-matched results. Screening can be carried out from 1984 onward for England and Wales and 2008 for the rest of the UK.
Most of our clients using this service require an initial 10-year historical check and then go onto our monthly monitoring programme. Our monitoring programme will help you demonstrate good scheme governance.
Our key data sources include:
Office of National Statistics historic from 1984-2006 | Halo |
GRO Disclosure of death registration information from 2008 |
Postcode Address File (PAF) |
GRO Gap 2007-2008 | Current Commercial Electoral Roll |
Probate Register |
Screening protects you from deliberate or inadvertent pension fraud. Our screening is reassuringly comprehensive and conducted discreetly and sensitively.
3) Data Cleaning
The last 40 years have changed the profile of members. They’re more mobile – both in jobs and homes as well – but they’re also living longer.
Schemes need clean and accurate data, not just for compliance with regulations, but to improve their service to their members. Data cleansing can reduce risk to your scheme caused by poor or incomplete records and enable you to improve engagement with your members.
Equally important, it will keep you compliant with the Pension Regulator’s record keeping guidelines as well as General Data Protection Regulations.
How we can help
Our service is comprehensive and includes Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) to cleanse and add missing address data. This is important given the impact on data due to marriages, members moving home and deaths. We check your data against a variety of digital sources. Where we find your member we carry out additional tracing checks to verify the data before returning it to you.
Our cleansed data helps you limit the risk of overpayment of benefits and enables you to eliminate fraud and inefficiencies, which will negatively impact actuarial calculations and funding in the future.
Our key data sources include:
Current Commercial Electoral Roll | Postcode Address File (PAF) |
Historic Electoral Roll | NCOA Suppress |
NCOA Update | BT OSIS |
Phone Plus | Consumer Credit Data |
Companies House Register | Director Register |
Shareholder Register | Land Register |
GRO Birth Indexes | GRO Marriage Indexes |
Limit the risk of overpayments, reduce your exposure to fraud and improve engagement whilst reducing inefficiencies.
4) Monitoring
Reviewing your data monthly will enable you to keep your data up to date, saving you both time and money. You’ll reduce your exposure to fraud and the risk of impersonation of deceased fraud.
In the UK, each month:
- More than 20,000 people emigrate
- Over 40,000 people die
- Almost 20,000 people get married
- Around 17,000 people get divorced
And with 11% of the population moving home each year, there’s a lot for your data to keep up with.
How we can help
Not everyone is, but we’re screened and licensed to access the Disclosure of Death Registration Information data from the GRO. This direct access enables us to disclose deceased members within 1-6 weeks, and in some cases within days.
We handle our monthly mortality screening service in-house, covering the whole of the UK.
We begin with historic mortality screening that cleans your data using Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File and the current Commercial Electoral Roll. This corrects addresses and verifies continued residence, wherever possible. Once data has been screened, we check and verify all high-matched output. Your data is monitored quickly and discreetly without the need for member contact. You’ll then receive a monthly, timely, efficient and secure report of our findings. What’s more, additions to your database can be added quarterly. This helps you to demonstrate continued good governance.
We’re screened and licensed for direct access to the Disclosure of Death Registration Information from the General Register Office.
Our key data sources include:
- Disclosure of Death Registration Information (since 2008)
- Current Commercial Electoral Roll
- Postcode Address File
We don’t just offer data cleansing and monitoring, we offer an end-to-end strategic data solution. Whatever your challenge is, we can help.