NOW Pensions: bad news? Stay away?

MosesMoses

I work for them.
They suck.
The deductions are not up to date because their online portal is a bloody joke.
There are also a lot of employers who were affected by a change of administration from Equiniti to JLT Benefit Solutions.


NOW are cheapskates and rather like the toddler who insists on doing something for themselves and you have to prove to them they're too small to do it.
They are insisting on reconciling all of the bad data that came across themselves which as resulted in 12 month or more delay on retirements, transfers out and refunds.


The truth of the matter is, they were too cheap to pay JLT to do the whole shebang for them. JLT have a s**t hot team that are used to cases like this and get members paid out in just months! Because NOW didn't want to pay for JLT to do that, they are painstaking going through the data themselves - it is an absolute FARCE.


Complaints are through the roof and people at JLT and NOW are leaving left, right and centre because they cannot cope with the sheer stress of being shouted at all day by people who just want their money back.


One of the biggest clients just left NOW and have gone to JLT directly and are LOVING the results so far.


If you're an employer, go to JLT or NEST directly, everything will be easier for your members and the support is always there when you need it.


It was my old Dad who always told me, when you buy cheap, you buy twice. And this is certainly the case with NOW. Their failure to act and not pay for a great service from a 3rd party means their FCA fines are going to be astronomical. Employers are going to need to go elsewhere, because going with NOW is just more work in the long run.


JLT staff manage member communication and are tied about what they can say.


I'm SICK of the lot of it and as soon as I find another job, I'm off - we're all scared into silence and have to make out this pension is great, it's not. It's abysmal.


They have a trustee fund to pay out the refunds so, if you threaten to go to their offices, they'll pay you within a week...get the call agents at JLT to email the Complaints department at NOW and they will contact you as long as JLT strong arm them into it.


It once took three emails in 20 minutes to get our Complaints Manager to call someone back...bloody joke, but be persistent. JLT are trying they really are, but I don't think they knew NOW were this bad.....

lulinda

I was working for an agency and had been paying contributions to NOW for 3 years. I am now at State Pension Age and approached them to have my contributions paid to me in a lump sum; which was not a great amount, but after several months they did send me an offer which I accepted and I duly provided my bank details. 3 months later still nothing - apart from several holding letters saying they are not in a position to pay it out at present or cannot give me a time when they will be. They will keep me updated every 4 weeks or so. I have today phoned them again and they gave me the usual excuse problems with the migration of their data - this has been going on since 2015 I believe, but that is of no consequence to me. I have today reported them to the Pensions Ombudsman after all what is the point of saving with them if you then cannot get your money when you retire. I have also advised the agency who enrolled me with them and advised them to look at them.
Surely it is illegal for NOW to hold on to peoples money once they have retired?

dunstonh

lulinda wrote: »

I was working for an agency and had been paying contributions to NOW for 3 years. I am now at State Pension Age and approached them to have my contributions paid to me in a lump sum; which was not a great amount, but after several months they did send me an offer which I accepted and I duly provided my bank details. 3 months later still nothing - apart from several holding letters saying they are not in a position to pay it out at present or cannot give me a time when they will be. They will keep me updated every 4 weeks or so. I have today phoned them again and they gave me the usual excuse problems with the migration of their data - this has been going on since 2015 I believe, but that is of no consequence to me. I have today reported them to the Pensions Ombudsman after all what is the point of saving with them if you then cannot get your money when you retire. I have also advised the agency who enrolled me with them and advised them to look at them.
Surely it is illegal for NOW to hold on to peoples money once they have retired?

You may find a better approach is to complain to them using the regulated complaints process when then allows access to the FOS if you do not get an adequate response.

Their activity is not illegal. Lots of people continue to use the pension wrapper well in retirement. It is poor service and that is not illegal.

xylophone

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

http://www.nowpensions.com/help-centre/employee/employee_communications/employee-complaints-process

http://www.nowpensions.com/help-centre/company/administration/how-do-i-make-a-complaint-to-now-pensions-ltd

txsling

@dunstonh Some aspects of poor service are illegal, actually. I am pursuing a formal complaint against NOW : Pensions taking 8 months+ to process a transfer request that should have been done in 3 months (I'm an early leaver from their scheme). I have reported them to The Pensions Regulator and am in contact with The Pensions Advisory Service. I know some of my colleagues are having similar problems. The insider post above from MosesMoses is very informative.

dunstonh

@dunstonh Some aspects of poor service are illegal, actually.

Not illegal. Possibly unlawful. More likely incompetence and breach of guidelines rather than laws.

txsling

@dunstonh Can you clarify what you think the difference is between 'illegal' and 'unlawful'? My understandig is that 'illegal' means 'prohibited by statute' whereas 'unlawful' means 'not provided for by law'. NOW: Pensions actions are the former (I believe) - see below.

I have identified the relevant legal and regulatory framework that I think gives me good grounds for legal action against NOW Pensions and I reported them to The Pensions Regulator yesterday on that basis. Here's the relevant excerpt from my complaint letter (I'm an early leaver so that's why they have a three month limit to action my transfer request; also I had to remove URLs from my post):

"Legal issues

Under Chapter 5 of Part IV of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 (Ss. 101AA onwards), NOW: Pensions Trustees have a legal obligation to pay members who leave pensionable service early with less than two years’ pensionable service and no vested rights to a benefit under the scheme, but have satisfied the three months condition (TPR code of practice for early leavers, p.10), a cash transfer sum or a contribution refund, depending on the member’s notification to trustees. This must be paid within a reasonable period, according to the legislation. What constitutes a reasonable period has been defined by The Pensions Regulator, which has issued a regulatory code of practice (no. 4) covering Early leavers – reasonable periods (p. 11). Under this guidance, the cash transfer sum or contribution refund would usually be paid within three months from the date of the member’s notification or deemed notification to the trustees. The Pensions Act 1995, section 10, sets out civil penalties (£5,000 in the case of individual members) that apply to managers of pension schemes if the cash transfer sum or contribution refund is not paid within a reasonable period.

As the transfer request was requested originally by 16th November 2015 and any paperwork required to consent to the transfer request was processed by February 2016, the transfer should have been processed and completed by 16th February 2016. I see no reason to accept that the data consolidation issues previously notified to me by NOW: Pensions should be delaying the transfer process to this extent (8 months from the initial request, and counting), and therefore I believe that in failing to process my transfer request in a timely manner (by 16th February 2016), NOW: Pensions is now in breach of the relevant legal and regulatory framework. I will be reporting this to The Pensions Regulator in due course. I urge NOW: Pensions to act quickly to remedy the situation, in order to mitigate against any legal risks that may arise from the situation."

Aug 2016 update: I have made a formal complaint in writing to NOW: Pensions and TPAS will be taking it forwards through their IDRP on my behalf. NOW: Pensions don't like making the IDRP forms publicly available, it seems.

MartinButcher

I have been trying since May 2015 to get my pension from Now Pensions
They are the worst company l have ever had dealings with. I made a complaint to the call centre in Dec 2015. Nothing happened with that. I then entered into their official complaint process and after 2 months have not had a reply. I then emailed their managing director who passed my email to the complaints dept telling them to sort it out. That was 6 weeks ago and l till haven't got my money. I have been in touch with my ex employment and it seems Now Pensions have lost all details of my payments and had to request them again. It seems they have so badly managed their transfer of data from one computer system to another that the have screwed the records of a significant proportion of their clients.
I am running out of ways to try and get some action from them!

Kilgore

I'm in exactly the same situation. Lost funds and been waiting for a transfer out for 10 months. They have not carried out their part of the IDRP within their time stated. Contact the Pensions Ombudsman they will look into it.

Beachdrifter

I don't know if this is relevant to this but when I started working for my company in July 2014 I was enrolled into the pension scheme with Now Pensions. In March/April this year I received my statement and when I saw this I decided to opt out and as I was 55 could have a payout which I was going to pay into my private pension. I contacted them and was sent out and opt out form which I completed and returned. Since then there have been ongoing problems, not entirely Now Pensions fault I was sent forms for me to confirm I would like a payout and gave my bank details that was over 3 weeks ago. I have still not received the funds into my account. I now need that money urgently to help a family member out and whenever I phone I am kept on the phone for ages although the girls I speak to have been more than helpful I have been promised a call back which does not materialise. I was told that they had received the signed forms and bank details but I would receive a letter in a few days time telling me when I would be receiving payment. I told them I didn't need the letter I just needed the funds urgently due to a family situation. She said she would get admin to call or email to discuss this. By noon today I had not heard anything so called back and spoke to Matthew( he would not give me his surname), he kept me on the phone for ages even though he took a while to read the notes asked me to explain what the problem was. When I said as he couldn't help could I speak to a supervisor/manager he said there was not one there. He constantly spoke over me when I tried to stress the urgency of why I needed my money and even shouted me down. We ended with him saying admin would email then constantly told me my email address which was incorrect. When I corrected him he said yeah and said it wrong again.Do they make money on these phone calls is their aim to keep you on the phone for ages. I will be phoning back tomorrow morning to try and get this resolved. If anyone can offer any advice I would appreciate it. I'll keep you updated