Skandia Pension demanding refund!

dunstonh

For the record I am still contracted out - I just checked with the advisor I used to shift the pension. What difference does that make?

Contacting HMRC to ask them why they recalled the rebate could be a good option as James says.

What's the worst that can happen anyway? Non-payment will lead to... ?

They can take you to court and you can get a CCJ registered against you.

Waps

Right, just spoken to HMRC and they said, "according to their records, my pension was transferred away from Skandia on 05/04/09. HMRC then paid a rebate of £1680 to Skandia for the year 06/05/09 - 05/04/2010 and therefore the rebate was not due.

HMRC said Skandia failed to advise them until June 2010 that the pension was no longer with them and they certainly should not have paid me the rebate, it should have been sent straight back to HMRC.

HMRC said they are happy, becase Skandia have now paid them it back; she then went on to say she doesn't think under the circumstances and due to the fact Skandia told HMRC over a year later the pension was no longer with them, coupled with the rebate being paid to me when it shoiuldn't havebeen, that Skandia should foot the bill for their error/lateness.

Looks like my beef is with Skandia afterall - I will ask them for their side, in writing and go from there.

dunstonh

HMRC said Skandia failed to advise them until June 2010 that the pension was no longer with them and they certainly should not have paid me the rebate, it should have been sent straight back to HMRC.

Did you complete the CA form to let HMRC know you wanted to contract back in?

HMRC said they are happy, becase Skandia have now paid them it back; she then went on to say she doesn't think under the circumstances and due to the fact Skandia told HMRC over a year later the pension was no longer with them, coupled with the rebate being paid to me when it shoiuldn't havebeen, that Skandia should foot the bill for their error/lateness.

The person at HMRC clearly doesnt know how the admin works.

Looks like my beef is with Skandia afterall - I will ask them for their side, in writing and go from there.

Your beef is actually with the financial adviser that transferred you away from Skandia as they should have completed the CA form for you at that point (if you wanted to contract back in). If you contracted out with the new pension then that would have automatically taken over the rebates. If you contracted in, then you should have filled in the CA form to contract back in.

Skandia have some culpability in the error as they should have transferred the rebate to the new provider rather than giving you the choice. They probably though they were doing you a favour by giving you the choice. That now looks like a bad judgement call on their part.

Waps

dunstonh wrote: »

Did you complete the CA form to let HMRC know you wanted to contract back in?

I think I see what you are saying - if I am still contracted out, then the rebate should still be correct, but just carried forward to the new pension?

Waps

dunstonh wrote: »

Skandia have some culpability in the error as they should have transferred the rebate to the new provider rather than giving you the choice. They probably though they were doing you a favour by giving you the choice. That now looks like a bad judgement call on their part.

They'd have done me a favor following correct procedures by sending it straight back to the HMRC - offering me the cash as a "favor" was completely incompetant

Waps

OK - update!

This is getting more confusing by the minute...

HMRC have said the rebate was in respect of tax yr 2009 - 2010.

They pension was transferred on 24/03/2010 - according to HMRC, because this falls within the tax yr 2009 - 2010, the rebate was paid in error, despite the transfer date being only 12 days short of the new tax year. Apparanetly, they only go on full years only, not part years?

I was contracted out initially on the Skandia pension.

I have a letter from Skandia confirming the transfer, and at the bottom it says "we have sent the necessary CA forms to the inland revenue".

I now think I am contracted back in on my new pension.

Despite the above, the rebate was made to Skandia which was in turn sent to me I think around August 2010.

HELP!!!:mad:

jamesd

HMRC is right about the whole years. The full rebate for 2009-2010 should have been paid into the place you switched to, if the contracting out paperwork for that one was in place. Was it?

When did HMRC receive the paperwork from Skandia?

When did HMRC receive the paperwork from the new pension saying you were contracted out into that one?

Hard to see why September would have allowed insufficient time for HMRC not to notice that no money should have gone to Skandia.

If no contracted out rebate was paid into the new pension you can ask HMRC to send the money back to Skandia and leave the mistake in place.