job in pensions - test at interview

edgeof30

looking for some pointers. I have an interview coming up for an admin role in a large company pensions department. The job advert stated no qualifications/experience necessary but experience would be an advantage. Basic job role is "financial & pensions paperwork & filing". 

Invite to interview states there will be a written test as part of the interview & now I'm worried. Anyone have any idea's what this might entail? I'm thinking maybe some case examples to work through? But the company deals with pension scheme members of a DB scheme so I'm not sure the it would be case examples as these would vary for a DC scheme & that may be the candidates background. And don't most company schemes differ slightly anyway? Perhaps it might be more just testing basic mathematical/calculation skills? or maybe questions about pension legislation? 

any tips would be helpful from anyone either working in that field or that's been through a similar interview. 

Woby_Tide

No experience but given the role I’d suggest less about knowing legislation and finance side and more about attention to detail I.e. extracting correct data relating to a person for GDPR reasons and ordering of data I.e filing

chiefie

Agree with woby - attention to detail and possibly some maths/calcs and estimation test

Dox

If the advertisement says that qualifications and experience aren't essential, it is unlikely you'll be given a technical test. More likely a simple case study such as how you'd respond to a complaint (might involve writing a reply), maybe some calculations/basic arithmetic.

Silvertabby

Agree there will probably be a maths test.  However, you may also be asked questions on pensions, so strongly recommend that you study the pension scheme information booklet (usually available on line).  This will have been written for fund members rather than administrators, but will give you a good overview of the scheme. 
Been there, done that.
Good luck.

hyubh

A bit more detail on what sort of pensions admin we are talking about would be helpful, in particular DB or DC (or both), in house or third party administrator, single or multi-employer.

In general, I'd suggest checking up on the core jargon. So for DB, that's terms like 'final salary', 'CARE', 'accrual rate', 'reckonable service', 'revaluation', 'pension increase', 'GMP' (just what a GMP is or represents); for DC, terms like 'units', 'SMPI', 'TRA'. Googling gives some good general lists - I imagine you could quickly find others:
https://thepeoplespension.co.uk/jargon-buster/
https://www.tpt.org.uk/pensions-explained/jargon-buster-glossary 

With respect to maths, for DB, getting into the swing of using fractions and calculating service (i.e. membership) periods in years and days are generically useful - not all all DB schemes express accrual rates as fractions, and not all calculate service periods in years and days, but those are the usual scenarios. For example,

Joe Bloggs joined WidgetCo Pension Scheme on 1 Jan 2009 and left on 31 March 2014, inclusive of a period of part time working (50% normal hours) between 1 May 2010 to 31 August 2010. Assuming an accrual rate of 1/60 and a final salary of £30,000, calculate their deferred pension.

Now, if the job advert explicitly says, no experience necessary, then you probably wouldn't have a test question exactly like that. However, it would be the sort of calculation an actual maths test would be aiming to determine your likely competence in.

Might also be helpful to get familiar with looking up rates from a table - see the s52a factor table here:
https://www.barnett-waddingham.co.uk/comment-insight/blog/revaluation-for-early-leavers/