Tata Consultancy Services to deliver Irish pension scheme

Ireland’s Department of Social Protection has contracted Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to provide the IT and business services that underpin its new retirement pension scheme.

The 15-year contract will see Ireland’s My Future Fund use TCS’s BaNCS digital platform to automatically enrol 800,000 people in Ireland to the retirement savings scheme.

It comes after the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill was passed in Ireland earlier this year, and tender process was run by the country’s Department of Social Protection.

Through its platform and business processing outsourcing services, TCS will oversee the administration of the scheme, including enrolment, record management and benefit disbursement.

The service will be run from TCS’s Global Delivery Centre in Letterkenny, Ireland, which employs around 1,200 people.

“My officials and I will be working hard alongside TCS, the Revenue Commissioners and payroll software developers to make sure that My Future Fund is delivered on time and to the highest standard,” said Ireland’s minister for social protection, Heather Humphreys.

In the UK, TCS has managed a similar scheme, the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest), since 2011. In June last year, Nest extended its outsourcing contract with the supplier for another decade.

Worth a reported £840m over the 10-year period, the deal focuses on improving the digital experience for Nest’s 12 million members and one million employers, using TCS’s BaNCS platform.

TCS has built a strong life and pensions business in the UK. It strengthened its UK operation though the acquisition of life and pension outsourcing business Pearl Group in 2005, and then set up Diligenta to help it grow in life and pensions BPO.

In June 2023, the UK Department for Education outsourced the management of over two million teachers’ pensions to TCS, also in a 10-year contract aimed at digitally transforming scheme administration.

TCS’s boss in Ireland, Deepak Chaudhari, said: “This partnership is a fantastic opportunity for TCS Ireland to apply its deep contextual knowledge, innovation and to contribute to a project of national importance that will have a lasting impact.

“It is an exciting time for our talented team, as this initiative not only expands our capabilities, but also job opportunities and skills development to Donegal; further strengthening our commitment to the region and driving meaningful change in the pensions landscape.”