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Document Purpose

The purpose of the Member Data File Requirements Document is to provide requirements for implementing the file upload changes associated with the new file formats that will be available to Employers for upload through the Employer Portal.
This document will include: 

• • General file requirements 
  • File specifications for each file type 
  • List of valid code values – e.g. leave types, full-time/part-time indicator, province, language, etc. 
  • Sample CSV files for each file type

NOTE: calculations specifications have not changed from current state.  Please refer to the HOOPP Employer Administration Manual for calculation requirements and examples.

Requirements 

This section provides the detailed requirements for the new file formats that will be available for upload and submission to HOOPP from the Employer Portal.

General File Requirements

The following are the general file format requirements that applies across all files.

MDC Data - File Requirements

This file is provided annually as part of the MDC (Member Data Collection) process. 

Information provided in this file will update all active member’s employment record with HOOPP related to contributory service, required contribution amounts, pension adjustment and changes in their full-time/parttime status.  It also allows you to provide Annualized Earnings for your employees that waived the right to contribute (prior to January 1, 2014) as a result of an employment status change from Full-time to Part-time. 

Information provided must only include members who are active (i.e. currently employed) within the MDC year. If the member terminated employment within the year they must be excluded from this file since the data has already been reported to HOOPP.  Note: if you reported a Retirement Notice for a member where the employment end date is after the MDC year and final data has not been reported to HOOPP, you must include the MDC information for these members.

The following is a summary of requirements for reporting total weeks and contributions: 

• Weeks and contributions reported should reflect both regular and overtime hours up to the full-time equivalency with contributions deducted on the straight-time portion of all pensionable earnings that are paid in the calendar year.   
• Total weeks and contributions reported must not exceed 52 weeks for a given calendar year. For example, if the position is based on full-time of 1950 hours for a full calendar year, then contributions are deducted on all pensionable earnings up to 1950 hours. Contributions should not be deducted for hours the member works above the FTE for their position in any year.  
  
  
  
  

• Exception: In a 27 pay period year weeks must also not exceed 52 weeks, however you must report contributions from pensionable earnings for the extra pay period, even if the member has already reached the FTE for their position on or before the 26th pay period. Contributions should be deducted on all pensionable earnings up to the FTE for the member’s position plus the regular hours associated with the additional pay period.  
• For example, if the position is based on full-time of 1950 hours (37.5 hours per week) then contributions would be made to a maximum of 2025 full-time hours. 
  
  
  
  
• Reported weeks and contributions are based on the maximum full-time standard hours that are available and expected to be worked by that employee to maintain their full-time status. If service reported is less than a defined threshold where it is unlikely the member is full-time:
  
  
  
  • A valid reason must be provided, such as reporting a leave of absence to account for the service shortfall via the Leaves of Absence file, or update the member status to part-time if they have changed their employment type. Or, 
  • If a member has less than 52 weeks but more than or equal to 51 weeks, weeks can be adjusted to 52 without adjusting contributions. This is meant to accommodate minor deviations (up to -1 week) from contributing at the full FTE for the period that may result from payroll scheduling and/or instances in which members trade shifts in one calendar year for shifts that fall in the subsequent year.  
    
    
    
    
• If the member enrols or terminates part way through the year, contributions should be deducted from pensionable earnings on fewer than the full-time equivalent (FTE) hours in a year for their position. Determine the maximum hours on which contributions can be deducted by prorating the FTE hours (for the full calendar year) to reflect the portion of the year actually worked. This will give you the FTEmaximum possible hours for the period (the partial year). Deducting contributions on pensionable earnings up to athe maximum of the possible hours in the FTE for the period ensures that the possible weeks of contributory service in the period will not be exceeded.  

For example, a new employee is enrolled in the Plan effective March 15. The FTE for her position is 1950 hours for a full calendar year. Between March 15 and December 31 there are 292 days which represents 80% of a full calendar year (292 ÷ 365 = 0.8). The maximum hours on which you should deduct contributions is therefore 1560 hours (1950 hours x 80%)
 

In addition to the above, if the member has made contributions for a reported leave of absence within the MDC year, those weeks and contributions must be reported and included within the weeks and contributions total. 

Exception: If weeks and contributions for periods of leave within the MDC year have already been reported as a lump sum contribution via the Remittance process for the same MDC year, they must be excluded from this file. Weeks and contribution information previously reported should not be reported again. For clarification, the Total Weeks Paid reported within the Contributory Leave file must be included in the MDC Weeks total. 

Note: Annualized earnings is only required for a very specific group of members and represents a very low volume. If this information is not available from your payroll system and you are unable to program this requirement you may choose not to populate this field. Within the HOOPP data collection process, we will review the data in the file and identify any members for which we are expecting Annualized Earnings. If it is expected and not provided, the Employer will be prompted to provide this information by manually entering in the value.

Contributory Leaves - File Requirements

        This file is provided annually as part of the MDC (Member Data Collection) process or via Final Events for any leaves of absence if the member was part-time at any point during the year.

        Information provided will update the member’s leave of absence from non contributory to contributory (i.e. Paid). This information is important since it is used to determine the member’s Early Retirement Reduction factor which plays a role in determining the member’s earliest unreduced retirement date and monthly pension.  This information is              also required by the Income Tax Act to track the prescribed compensation.   

         You report the total weeks paid for which the member made contributions during the leave, and the percent of normal earnings. To determine percent of normal earnings, you: 

• Total the hours worked during the 10 week period prior to the leave commencement and divide by 10, then
• Divide by the weekly Standard Full-Time hours, then
• Multiply by 100

Formula:  (Total hours member worked during 10 weeks /10) / (weekly standard full-time hours) x 100

Example: Member worked total of 150 hours during the 10 weeks prior to the leave.  

Percent of Normal Earnings = (Total hours member worked during 10 weeks /10) / ( weekly standard full-time hours) x 100

• (150/10) / 37.5 x 100 = 40% 

Important to note that 100% of Normal Earning’s does not mean the entire leave is changed to Contributory, unless the Part Time member worked full time equivalent hours prior to the leave.

When you submit the data, HOOPP updates the member’s leave of absence to Contributory by taking the Total weeks Paid divided it by the Percent of Normal Earnings. This will determine what portion of the leave will be updated to Contributory.  The member will be able to view all updated contributory leave information based on your submission.

Example: Member’s leave of absence is Jan 1 2018 to Sept 30 2018 and you report the contributory leave as:

• Total Weeks Paid = 13
• Percent Of Normal Earnings = 40%

HOOPP will update the member’s leave of absence to Contributory from Jan 1 2018 to August 14 2018 (13 ÷ 40% = 32.5 weeks of the leave will be updated to contributory)

August 15 2018 to Sept 30 2018 will remain as a non-contributory leave of absence. The member will be able to pay for the remainder of leave within 6 months of returning to work (through Remittance Lump Sum Contributions) or they can purchase this service later though a Buyback.

If the member was full-time for the entire MDC year, they should be excluded from this file. The weeks and contributions made for the leave period are included in the total weeks provided in the MDC data file – i.e. the MDC data file includes total weeks and contributions for both regular time and for periods of paid leaves for the MDC year.  The Leaves of Absence and MDC data files are all that are required to report this information to HOOPP for full-time members. 
 
Note: If the leave was not previously reported to HOOPP via the Leaves of Absence process, you can report net new contributory leaves for part-time members within this file. If the leave was previously reported to HOOPP but corrections are required, you must report these corrections through the Leaves of Absence file.

Leaves of Absence - File Requirements

This file is provided in-year as part of the Leaves of Absence - Data Collection process. Information provided will update the member’s employment record with any leaves the member has taken through the year, the type of leave and start and/or end dates for the leave.  In addition, this file is used to report approved work schedule reductions (formerly referred to as a temporary period of reduced earnings).

Note: Approved non-statutory leaves (code 07) cannot be less than 31 days as contributions are mandatory. All other leave types can be less than 31 days.

Leaves should be reported to HOOPP throughout the year.  This file could be provided to HOOPP on a scheduled basis, such as monthly, to report new leaves, update previously reported leave information (e.g. first file reports leave start date, subsequent file provides leave end date) or provide corrections to previously reported leaves.

You can choose to send net data changes only or accumulated employee data within the reporting file. For example, the first, second and third file reports an employee’s leave start date only and a fourth file provides both leave start and end date.  The employee can be provided in the file each month, however, this is only possible within the payroll year. You cannot provide accumulated data for more than one payroll year – i.e. the same employee / same leave cannot be included for 2 years in a row.  At the start of each payroll year, you would need to “reset” and provide net changes for the new payroll year.

Retro Contributions - File Requirements

This file is provided in-year as part of the remittance Monthly Contribution Reporting (MCR) process.

Within the MCR process, the total retro payment along with the corresponding member data associated with the payment is remitted to HOOPP.  This file provides the member data in respect of the retro contributions, applicable year and year paid to the member.  If a member has a retro payment that affects multiple years, a row should be provided for each Retro Year impacted.

Retro contributions provided, is in respect of prior years’ only and not the current calendar year, or a year for which MDC data has not yet been reported. This means that any payment received in the current year, for prior years, is considered to be retro (i.e. a settlement paid in 2016 pertaining to 2015 and 2014). Any payment received in the current year, for the current or MDC year should be reported through the annual MDC process.

Member Basic Info - File Requirements

This file is provided in-year as part of the Basic Member Data - Data Collection process.

This file is used to update basic information about members that are currently enrolled in the pension plan (but may or may not be currently contributing to the plan).   

Any changes to the member’s basic information should be reported throughout the year whenever a member’s basic information such as First Name, Last Name, SIN, Employment Type, Contribution Status, etc have changed or needs to be corrected. 

A change to contributory status only applies when a member who was previously contributing to the Plan waives his/her right to continue making contributions, or was previously waived and is returning to a contributory status. This status is not used as a general indicator of contributing vs. not contributing.  There are very specific rules regarding when a member can make this election (please refer to the HOOPP Employer Administration Manual for more information). 

Note: Changes to a member’s SIN, name and contributory status are typically lower volume updates. However, part-time to full-time status changes are more common.  As an option, this file can be programmed to support only a sub-set of data changes such as employment type changes only, or employment type and name changes. 

Events (Termination & Retirement) - File Requirements

This file is provided in-year as part of the Final Data - Data Collection Process for a member who has terminated employment or has retired.  

This file allows employers to report final data related to service and contributions that is required in order for HOOPP to complete the terminated employment/retirement process and provide the member with benefit options.

This file should be used to report the applicable set of data once the Employer has confirmed the member’s final set of payroll information (e.g. service and contributions) as of the member’s last day worked. 

The following is a summary of requirements for reporting total weeks and contributions: 

• Weeks and contributions reported should reflect both regular and overtime hours up to the full-time equivalency with contributions deducted on the straight-time portion of all pensionable earnings that are paid in the calendar year.   

• Total weeks and contributions reported must not exceed 52 weeks for a given calendar year. For example, if the position is based on full-time of 1950 hours for a full calendar year, then contributions are deducted on all pensionable earnings up to 1950 hours. Contributions should not be deducted for hours the member works above the FTE for their position in any year.  

Exception: In a 27 pay period year weeks must also not exceed 52 weeks, however you must report contributions from pensionable earnings for the extra pay period, even if the member has already reached the FTE for their position on or before the 26th pay period. Contributions should be deducted on all pensionable earnings up to the FTE for the member’s position plus the regular hours associated with the additional pay period.   For example, if the position is based on full-time of 1950 hours (37.3 hours per week) then contributions would be made to a maximum of 2025 full-time hours. 

• Reported weeks and contributions are based on the maximum full-time standard hours that are available and expected to be worked by that employee to maintain their full-time status. If service reported is less than a defined threshold where it is unlikely the member is full-time:

• A valid reason must be provided, such as reporting a leave of absence to account for the service shortfall via the Leaves of Absence file, or 

• If a member has less than 52 weeks but more than or equal to 51 weeks, weeks can be adjusted to 52 without adjusting contributions. This is meant to accommodate minor deviations (up to -1 week) from contributing at the full FTE for the period that may result from payroll scheduling and/or instances in which member trade shifts in one calendar year for shifts that fall in the subsequent year.  

• If the member terminates part way through the year, you must prorate the FTE hours for the full calendar year to reflect the portion of the year actually worked. This will give you the FTE for the period (the partial year). Deducting contributions on pensionable earnings up to a maximum of the hours in the FTE for the period ensures that the possible weeks of contributory service in the period will not be exceeded.

For example, the employee terminates or retires effective March 31. The FTE for her position is 1950 hours for a full calendar. Between January 1 and March 31 there are 90 days which represents 25% of a full calendar year (90 ÷ 365 = 0.25). The maximum hours on which you should deduct contributions is therefore 487.5 hours (1950 hours x 25%).   

• In addition to the above, if the member has made contributions for a reported leave of absence within the calendar year, those weeks and contributions must be reported and included within the weeks and contributions total. 

Exception: If weeks and contributions for periods of leave within the MDC year have already been reported as a lump sum contribution via the Remittance process for the same MDC year, they must be excluded from this file. Weeks and contribution information previously reported should not be reported again. For clarification, the Total Weeks Paid reported within the Contributory Leave file must be included in the Weeks total.

Note1: Annualized earnings is only required for a very specific group of members and represents a very low volume. If this information is not available from your payroll system and you are unable to program this requirement you may choose not to populate this field. Within the HOOPP data collection process, we will review the data in the file and identify any members for which we are expecting Annualized Earnings. If it is expected and not provided, the Employer will be prompted to provide this information by manually entering in the value. 

Note 2: Final data is only required for years where annual data has not already been reported to HOOPP via the MDC process.  Therefore, if the annual MDC data has already been submitted for a particular year that years data must not be reported again in this file.  

Enrolments - File Requirements

This file is provided in-year as part of the member Enrolment - Data Collection Process.  

This file is used to enroll an Employee in the HOOPP plan.

Previous Year Adjustments - File Requirements 

This file is provided in-year as part of the remittance Monthly Contribution Reporting (MCR) process. 

Adjustment information will be used to update member’s record for years prior to the current MDC year.  Previous Year Adjustments shall only be reported for specific member level adjustments that have NOT been reported via the MDC process. 

Previous Year Adjustments can only be reported to HOOPP after the annual data (via MDC) for the adjustment year has been submitted.   

When reporting any type of previous year adjustment on an MCR, only report the adjustment amount (i.e. how much the data is changing) and not what was originally reported plus the adjustment amount.  The “Amended PA” is the only data reported that should include both the adjustment and the previously reported amount (i.e. the “full” PA amount).  

Note: Previous Year Adjustments can be a positive or negative amount.

Calculation Requirements

Please refer to the HOOPP Employer Administration Manual for formula’s and examples for calculating the following: 

• • Employee Contributions (Low Contributions, High Contributions) 
  • Retro contributions 
  • Pension Adjustment (PA) 
  • Annualized Earnings (AE) 

Interface Codes

The following are the valid list of codes for each corresponding file type:

Employment Type

Contributory Leaves Types

Leave of Absence Leaves Types

Gender

Title

Contributory Status

Event Type

Language Preference

Union Designation

Country

Province/State