Paying into a pension which has no record of me...

gnikassin

Hi

I wonder if anyone could offer any advice on the following - you'll have to forgive me, I'm not great at pension jargon and I'm a little rilled by the situation!

I joined a new organisation in September 2013 and started paying into a pension straight away. I received information about the council based pension from the organisation I work for, but after joining, received no paperwork from the council to confirm I had joined. I asked the personnel department if this was normal, they said it was, they said it was a great pension scheme, but that they could be a little behind on paperwork at times.

Some time into 2014, I realised that I should have received, or be receiving a pension statement. I asked personnel when I should expect this, they said not to worry about it as they hadn't had their own yet. October 2014 arrived, and colleagues in the office had received theirs.

By this time, I'm a little worried, so I contacted the pension company directly, and they told me they had no record of a pension in my name. I went straight to the personnel department to find out what was going on. They said that this was an going problem and that it occurred every now and then and that they would sort it out for me.

November 2014 - I approached the personnel department once again, they tell me they haven't had a chance to follow it up yet (to be fair, I know November is a very busy time for them).
December 2014 - asked again, still not had a chance to look
January 2015 - asked again, still not had a chance to look, but told I am one of 4 people with a similar issue at the moment and that it will get sorted.

My questions are;
1. Should I be worried at all. It shows on all my payslips that I am paying into the pension, so I do have records, but I'm worried that the company I am working for has maybe made a mistake and doesn't want to admit it?
2. If I should be worried, what should my next steps be? Every time I approach the personnel department, they tell me that they will get it sorted but that they're "a little busy right now".

xylophone

You are paying into the LGPS?

You might try TPAS.

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/pension-problems

gnikassin

It's West Midlands Pension Fund - but I'm not sure if the problem is with them, or if it's with my workplace.

WMPF deny any knowledge of me even holding a pension with them
My workplace just seem to fob me off with "we'll get round to it when we're less busy"

I'll check out the Pensions Advisory Service as advised and see if there is any info there. Thank you

Southend1

Personally I wouldn't worry as long as the contributions were showing on my payslip.

xylophone

http://www.wmpfonline.com/article/4900/Members

The above?

hyubh

gnikassin wrote: »

It's West Midlands Pension Fund - but I'm not sure if the problem is with them, or if it's with my workplace.

WMPF will need explicit notification from the employer. For the larger employers in the fund that's probably automated or semi-automated (e.g., a report in an agreed format is run off of the payroll system and sent to WMPF every month), but for those with a lot less members it's probably manual with an individual form/e-form to complete on the employer's part. Once WMPF have notification they'll then set you up on their own systems and issue you a confirmation letter, as you've surmised.

Given the LGPS is a DB scheme, late notification won't in itself affect anything at the end of the day (assuming the employer gets round to it eventually). However, I agree some sort of escalation on your part would be sensible, if only for piece of mind.

gnikassin

hyubh wrote: »

WMPF will need explicit notification from the employer. For the larger employers in the fund that's probably automated or semi-automated (e.g., a report in an agreed format is run off of the payroll system and sent to WMPF every month), but for those with a lot less members it's probably manual with an individual form/e-form to complete on the employer's part. Once WMPF have notification they'll then set you up on their own systems and issue you a confirmation letter, as you've surmised.

Given the LGPS is a DB scheme, late notification won't in itself affect anything at the end of the day (assuming the employer gets round to it eventually). However, I agree some sort of escalation on your part would be sensible, if only for piece of mind.

Thank you - that explains things nicely. I'll keep pestering my employer, but after 4 months of pestering, I'm not sure it's going to have much of an effect!

xylophone

piece of mind.

The OP will be giving the administrator no peace (and a piece of his mind).........:)

mgdavid

gnikassin wrote: »

Thank you - that explains things nicely. I'll keep pestering my employer, but after 4 months of pestering, I'm not sure it's going to have much of an effect!

But you've been there 18 months; for this not to have been set up in that time is nothing short of an incompetent disgrace. If it were me I'd be exploring the process of escalating to the director responsible for HR and Payroll, and if that fails then possibly raising a grievance.

gnikassin

xylophone wrote: »

The OP will be giving the administrator no peace (and a piece of his mind).........:)

Ha ha! Yes, Monday could prove quite interesting!

gnikassin

mgdavid wrote: »

But you've been there 18 months; for this not to have been set up in that time is nothing short of an incompetent disgrace. If it were me I'd be exploring the process of escalating to the director responsible for HR and Payroll, and if that fails then possibly raising a grievance.

I was hoping to avoid something like this, but I think it's going to have to be my next step if my next round of pestering doesn't help!