More retirement savers could be affected by the council’s failure to send out pension savings statements.

Twenty members of Barnet Council’s pension fund – which is run by outsourcing firm Capita – have so far been found to have been affected by a failure to issue the statements over several years.

This constitutes a breach of pensions law and was reported to The Pensions Regulator in November last year.

The council has admitted “indicative results” of a review that is due to be completed by the end of February suggests more members are affected.

Those who did not receive statements are being offered a package of support, including help with the costs of an independent financial advisor.

Pension savings statements are particularly useful to people with defined benefit pension schemes, where the amount savers receive is based on their salary and how many years they have worked for their employer.

They are used to work out the inputs into the scheme and annual allowance charges.

By law, pension administrators are supposed to issue them to members every year if their savings are higher than the annual allowance – which is currently £40,000. This is the amount people can save before having to pay tax.

But the council failed to issue them to at least 20 members between 2013-14 and 2017-18, according to a report that was discussed at a meeting of Barnet’s local pension board on Monday (February 10).

Nigel Keogh, the council’s interim pensions manager, told the board: “We have been taking intensive remediation action and providing support to (affected) members, and we have outlined that in our report to the regulator.

“The regulator…is not taking any further action. They have noted what we are doing, and we will continue to keep people informed.

“That process is still ongoing. We are nearing the end of identifying the entire population that might be affected.”

Stephen Ross, an independent member of the pension board, said it was “disappointing to note that we are still on the regulator’s radar for different reasons” and asked what the take-up of the support package had been.

Mr Keogh said around three quarters of affected members had been in contact and requested support.

He added: “The team at Capita have been doing a very in-depth review going back through different groups of members and finding new cases as we go along.

“That process has nearly completed, and we will be able to report back on the full extent very shortly.”

In October last year, The Pensions Regulator issued a report detailing a “catalogue of errors” in the council’s pension fund, including £1.7 million of late contributions and a lack of clarity over member data.

A council report says many of the actions that were subsequently set out in a plan to improve the running of the fund have been completed.

It adds that the regulator acknowledged the most recent breach report but indicated “they did not intend to take any further action against the fund at this time”.