Scottish Widows poor service

LesleyMatt

My husband passed away in February this year and had a pension with SW. This Friday just gone [1st August] they have just paid the 'payout' into my bank.

It's only taken them 6 months to sort it out. Despite several assurances that they were 'escalating the paper work'.

As I said, he passed in February and on Thursday I received a letter addressed to my husband, and they were most surprised when I phoned them and had a moan :mad:

Brandon7035

Has anyone tried taking Scottish Widows to court for refusal to pay ? They are processing a claim worth over £20,000 for me and have already started quoting a 64 working day backlog. I am inclined to sue them for the money as is this an unacceptable delay I cannot afford and there is no guarantee that they will pay within their own timescale orv at all come to that. Is it possible to get a court judgement and a warrant of execution against them ?

dunstonh

Has anyone tried taking Scottish Widows to court for refusal to pay ?

Probably not as it doesnt happen. Rules require them to act within 6 months of having the required documentation.

I am inclined to sue them for the money as is this an unacceptable delay I cannot afford and there is no guarantee that they will pay within their own timescale orv at all come to that. Is it possible to get a court judgement and a warrant of execution against them ?

Just think this through. They are allowed 6 months. You go to court saying you think 2 months is unreasonable but they are allowed 6 months. Are they breaking any rules? No. 2 months is less than 6 months. So, is a court likely to side with you? No. You will just end up with costs.

kangoora

dunstonh wrote: »

Probably not as it doesnt happen. Rules require them to act within 6 months of having the required documentation.



Just think this through. They are allowed 6 months. You go to court saying you think 2 months is unreasonable but they are allowed 6 months. Are they breaking any rules? No. 2 months is less than 6 months. So, is a court likely to side with you? No. You will just end up with costs.

So, thinking this through, If they have 6 months should I be informing them of my intention to start a pension withdrawal 6 months prior to when I wish to draw my pension?

dunstonh

kangoora wrote: »

So, thinking this through, If they have 6 months should I be informing them of my intention to start a pension withdrawal 6 months prior to when I wish to draw my pension?

The planning should be years in advance as there are multiple steps. A very broad example would be.....

10 years before - start thinking about how you would want to take retirement benefits. If you are more cautious, then start looking a slow de-risking of assets if you plan to disinvest at retirement.

5 years before - look again at options and legislation. Continue de risking if you are cautious and start derisking if you havent already (again, only if you are disinvesting at retirement).

6 months before - obtain latest figures and verify your options. Request paperwork. Too early to act on them but it gets you prepared for any snags and you can see what their requirements are.

2 months before - request figures and forms again. This time complete and process them stating the intended date. In most cases, providers will complete the work from anything from 3 days to 3 weeks but in extreme cases (such as legacy/heritage pensions - the old stuff insurers have inherited from mergers and buy outs) it can take longer.

For those using income drawdown, they will have a different process.

SallyG

"Rules require them to act within 6 months of having the required documentation."
Which rules are they governed by dunstonh?
Is this relevant?
http://www.fca.org.uk/firms/being-regulated/unfair-contracts

However:
"The FCA has powers under the Regulations to investigate and, if necessary, take action in respect of unfair terms in standard-form consumer contracts. While the Regulations address the way in which the terms in standard-form consumer contracts are written, they do not consider the practice or policy of firms in the way they conduct their business.
[my italics]
If you want to report what you believe to be an unfair business practice (as opposed to an unfair contract term), please call the FCA’s Customer Contact Centre on 0845 606 1234 or email (consumer.queries@fca.org.uk)."

Not sure how SW/the rules would justify taking/allowing 6 months to carry out a customer's instructions.

dunstonh

I am amending my info. The 6 months applies to occupational pension schemes. For personal pension schemes it is 3 months (The Personal Pension Schemes (Transfer Values) Regulations 1987)

"The FCA has powers under the Regulations to investigate and, if necessary, take action in respect of unfair terms in standard-form consumer contracts. While the Regulations address the way in which the terms in standard-form consumer contracts are written, they do not consider the practice or policy of firms in the way they conduct their business.

It is not SW that created the legislation. It is the Govt.

Not sure how SW/the rules would justify taking/allowing 6 months to carry out a customer's instructions.

They havent said 6 months. They have said upto 64 days.

kidmugsy

dunstonh wrote: »

The 6 months applies to occupational pension schemes. For personal pension schemes it is 3 months

Do you happen to know which applies to an AVC? (This was an AVC that had been attached to a DB scheme but was not crystallised when the DB pension was taken.)

dunstonh

The guidelines say Money purchase is 3 months. So, I would guess (and its only a guess) that it would be 3 months.

Brandon7035

dunstonh wrote: »

Probably not as it doesnt happen. Rules require them to act within 6 months of having the required documentation.



Just think this through. They are allowed 6 months. You go to court saying you think 2 months is unreasonable but they are allowed 6 months. Are they breaking any rules? No. 2 months is less than 6 months. So, is a court likely to side with you? No. You will just end up with costs.

I should have provided you with more details. It is a claim for my mum's bond. She died in Jan 2009 and I informed them but I was not able to claim then due to a discrepancy which took years to clear up (date of birth on death certificate). One big reason for summonsing is that I do not want to go over the limitation time. Is this six years from when Scottish Widows were informed of the death ? I am worried that I will lose entitlement to any of the money due to time expiry.