Closing pension

timeism0ney

My employer (that I'm no longer with) signed me up for a pension scheme and I now appear to have £11 in the 'pot'. I am not interested in it, never (to my knowledge) signed up for it, and want to close the account for security reasons. I don't need an account with £11 in it to take up my headspace!

The pensions provider says no, I had a month to cancel it since the welcome letter, which has now passed and nothing can be done until I reach retirement age.

What can I do?

greenglide

Wait until you reach 55 (under current rules)?

Transfer this to other pension savings? You do have other pensions?

What, exactly, are the "want to close the account for security reasons."?

Your employer auto enrolled you into a pension scheme and you were not interested in the contributions that the employer was paying in?

timeism0ney

That's right, I'm not interested in employer's contributions. The employer enrolled me a month before my contract expired, so I won't get anything from the employer anyway. And now I have this organisation holding my personal data like date of birth, address etc - for what reasons exactly?..

dunstonh

timeism0ney wrote: »

That's right, I'm not interested in employer's contributions. The employer enrolled me a month before my contract expired, so I won't get anything from the employer anyway. And now I have this organisation holding my personal data like date of birth, address etc - for what reasons exactly?..

for what? For the £11 they paid into the pension for you.

Even if you transfer the pension, they can retain that information for the rest of your life. Data protection requires data to be destroyed when it is no longer necessary. Not that all records should be destroyed.

hyubh

timeism0ney wrote: »

The employer enrolled me a month before my contract expired, so I won't get anything from the employer anyway. And now I have this organisation holding my personal data like date of birth, address etc - for what reasons exactly?..

Auto-enrolment legislation! I'm sure the pension provider would be just as happy for them to get rid of your details as you are. That said, what they've reported about the time limit to opt out and get a refund is also per the law.

timeism0ney

dunstonh wrote: »

for what? For the £11 they paid into the pension for you.

Yes, so now I want to trade it back. Have that £11 pounds, but get rid of my data. My personal data is mine, not theirs. I never even explicitly signed anything to tell that I want to be a part of this!

dunstonh wrote: »

Even if you transfer the pension, they can retain that information for the rest of your life. Data protection requires data to be destroyed when it is no longer necessary. Not that all records should be destroyed.

Probably true, but not reasonable really. I don't want to be part of this transaction and I should be able to opt out. Taking money out of the pot early shouldn't be possible - that's fine because that's against the concept of pensions, but to lock people in an agreement with £11 in it is just silly and unreasonable.

timeism0ney

hyubh wrote: »

Auto-enrolment legislation! I'm sure the pension provider would be just as happy for them to get rid of your details as you are. That said, what they've reported about the time limit to opt out and get a refund is also per the law.

Yes that's what it seems to be like. No wonder half the country is obsessed with pensions. You would be if you're enrolled in them whether you like it or not!

Obviously my fault for missing the 30-day period but it landed on me out of the blue when we were moving house and I was bemused by it more than anything.

Malthusian

timeism0ney wrote: »

Yes, so now I want to trade it back. Have that £11 pounds, but get rid of my data. My personal data is mine, not theirs. I never even explicitly signed anything to tell that I want to be a part of this!
Probably true, but not reasonable really. I don't want to be part of this transaction and I should be able to opt out. Taking money out of the pot early shouldn't be possible - that's fine because that's against the concept of pensions, but to lock people in an agreement with £11 in it is just silly and unreasonable.

You signed the employment contract, and your employer is allowed to pass your data to the pension scheme as needed in order to comply with its legal duty to set up a pension for you.

dunstonh

robably true, but not reasonable really. I don't want to be part of this transaction and I should be able to opt out. Taking money out of the pot early shouldn't be possible - that's fine because that's against the concept of pensions, but to lock people in an agreement with £11 in it is just silly and unreasonable.

you were given the chance to opt out. If you had, this would not have happened.

Yes, so now I want to trade it back. Have that £11 pounds, but get rid of my data. My personal data is mine, not theirs. I never even explicitly signed anything to tell that I want to be a part of this!Yes, so now I want to trade it back. Have that £11 pounds, but get rid of my data. My personal data is mine, not theirs. I never even explicitly signed anything to tell that I want to be a part of this!

Your data is also their data now. So, no, its not going to be got rid off. Plus, you agreed to it by opting in.

atush

And TBH, you sound a littler paranoid here. They are not some dodgy scammer on the street.

timeism0ney

No, that's the thing, I didn't opt in. That's why I'm annoyed.