Pearl Pensions Benefit Guarantees for poor advice

The_Duchessa

I worked in the NHS and started a pension with them when I started my nursed training in the early 80's. Unfortunately I was one of the naive souls who were convinced by Pearl Pensions to leave the NHS scheme in favour for theirs which I did for three years in the late 80's and then rejoined the NHS pension.
Pearl admitted that they advised people like me badly and they were required to protect our rights regarding our pension during the time we were with them and that they had to reflect the same rights as we would have been eligible to if we'd stayed in the NHS scheme.
For various reasons, I decided to release my NHS Pension on my 50th birthday. I was allowed to do this because of the time I joined the pension and I wanted to release the Pearl element too.
However after 12 months of wrangling with Pearl (now Phoenix) they say they are unable to release my pension despite the commitment to match all benefits relating to my time out of the NHS. Prior to this they had been liaising with the NHS to reflect the calculations used for my award, with some reluctance I must say.

I would like to hear if anyone else has experienced this and what my next steps are in terms of taking this issue further. Though the money is not huge I'm focussing on the principle.

Thanks in anticipation.

dunstonh

I suspect the section 32 buy out bond does not have a protected scheme age and therefore cannot allow you access to the fund until age 55 at the earliest.

You havent actually said why Phoenix have refused. Just that they have. Without knowing reasons, it is difficult to comment.

Another consideration is that the benefits would be matched to scheme retirement age. It would be unusual for a provider to agree to match early retirement benefits.

The_Duchessa

Thanks, they have said (only now after I advised them 12 months ago and them confirming that I was eligible to receive early payment) that Senior Management have reviewed my request and the recently government have changed the early retirement age from 50 to 55 and therefore they can't make payment. But as an NHS employee I am still entitled to take early retirement at 50 (it is not affected by recent government policy) and this pension with Pearl (Phoenix) would have been part of that pot if they hadn't advised me wrongly in the first place.

GhIFA

You are entitled to take the NHS benefits through having a protected pension age in that scheme which, to all intents and purposes, meant you were exempt from the legislation change in 2010 (when the earliest age at which you could take pension benefits increased from 50 to 55). However, from the sounds of it, the Pearl arrangement is not exempt and has to adhere to the current legislation, meaning you can't access it until age 55.