pensions

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all.
just a quick question for all you pensioners out there!! has anyone had trouble with a frozen works pension scheme. I recieved a letter last year, stating that as I was due to retire within 12months they would contact me in due course regarding options and values. since then nothing!!!! I have written several letters and sent emails to the provider, and as of yet had no reply it seems to have been forgotten somehow what should I do next!! any suggestions, ps retirment is only weeks away. thanks

 

[Raywood]

I would write a formal complaint to the pension provider asking for this to be dealt with through their formal complaints procedure and asking for a resolution within their usual time scale, with the rider if not dealt with to your satisfaction then you will be making a formal complaint to the Ombudsman. They are required by the regulator to have a formal procedure for complaints and to deal with it in line with that and send details of the Ombudsman procedure with the reply.

 

[Parksy]

Mine had been transferred to a different company and I had to do a bit of online detective work to find the correct details.
I entered the name of the firm where the pension was started and the name of the pension provider into Google and this unearthed several possible contact points which were mainly dead ends.
Fortunately for me someone who took pity on me from one of the firms mentioned who were not really connected with my pension also very kindly did some digging and he emailed further possible avenues for me to explore.
I made contact with the new administrators (who had previously tried to contact me at a previous address) and all was resolved in the end

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi guys, thanks for the input I do know who the provider is as they wrote to me last year, I have been doing a bit of digging and found the e-mails of the board of trustees inc the head pensions advisor and the chairperson, I have wrote to them both stating the facts and given them 7 days to respond, before starting a complaint procedure. I await their reply.

 

[Surfer]

hi guys, thanks for the input I do know who the provider is as they wrote to me last year, I have been doing a bit of digging and found the e-mails of the board of trustees inc the head pensions advisor and the chairperson, I have wrote to them both stating the facts and given them 7 days to respond, before starting a complaint procedure. I await their reply.

As the wife has reached that age, over a week ago we contacted two different occupational pension providers to ask them about a lump sum and annual payment breakdown. Still waiting for a reply and it is not as if we have asked them to go ahead and start the process.
Unfortunately with the wife, 3 of the 5 pension funds closed their doors due to the company shutting down which has made it very difficult for us to find out what is happening. In addition of the 3 on 2 of them she opted for 50% of her monthly payment to go towards "with profits" schemes which were manged by other different schemes and pension companies. Nightmare!
In South Africa all pension funds were administrated by companies not associated with the business for which you were working. In addition, it was a lot easier to transfer your pension to another provider with minimal loss. Pity it is not the same over here.