Prudential mistake!

gipsygirl

I wonder if anyone could give me some advice please? I have had a letter today from prudential regarding my personal pension saying ….


“We recently discovered that an error was made n the pricing of the prudential property fund during the period between 31st Dec 2001 & 25th July 2014 where the fund price was incorrect. This meant that when we settled your benefits we paid a sum lower than was actually due. We are sorry for this mistake & apologise for any mistake caused.
To make sure you don’t lose out financially we are sending you a cheque for the difference between what we paid & what we should have paid. We have included an allowance for growth in this payment.”


They have sent me a cheque for £48.64. To be honest I had no idea about this & before I cash the cheque just wondered if they actually might owe me more money & maybe I should find out first? I have no idea how to do this but I feel a bit miffed that my pension fund could have had an extra few quid in it that would have probably grown more than £48.64 between 2001 – 2014?! My fund value in 2014 was just over £60,000 & as far as I knew was with Legal & general & not “Prudential”! Are they the same group? I have checked & this was a pension endowment for our mortgage & that was closed in June 2007 & moved to a Legal & general personal pension. (We paid the mortgage off in 2008 & became mortgage free) We kept the pension going for me & it was moved to Old mutual wealth, then last year it was moved to a SIP with Amber Financial investments (intelligent money) This was done at the suggestion of our IFA.
I find it all very confusing!! ( & hope this makes sense to someone!) Should I just cash the cheque & be grateful or contact them about it? Any help with this would be much appreciated thanks.

dunstonh

before I cash the cheque just wondered if they actually might owe me more money

Do you have any reason to believe that they have made another incorrect calculation?

maybe I should find out first? I have no idea how to do this

There is probably contact details on that letter. You could always contact them.

but I feel a bit miffed that my pension fund could have had an extra few quid in it that would have probably grown more than £48.64 between 2001 – 2014?

No. Prudential have confirmed they have included growth.

My fund value in 2014 was just over £60,000 & as far as I knew was with Legal & general & not “Prudential”! Are they the same group?

No. They are not part of the same group.

Should I just cash the cheque & be grateful or contact them about it?

Unless you believe the figure is wrong, there is no reason to query it. These things tend to be checked and doubled checked before being released.

somethingcorporate

dunstonh wrote: »

Unless you believe the figure is wrong, there is no reason to query it. These things tend to be checked and doubled checked before being released.

You would assume they would in the first place!

I guess it's worth the cost of a phone call to find out the details of what has really gone on here. £48 seems a bit of a tiny amount for an incorrect calculation over an extended period of time so worth finding out what this is.

gipsygirl

I found this & wondered if it might be worth a punt sending them a letter!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/11392919/Pension-error-scandal-how-to-claim-missing-money.html

dunstonh

I guess it's worth the cost of a phone call to find out the details of what has really gone on here. £48 seems a bit of a tiny amount for an incorrect calculation over an extended period of time so worth finding out what this is.

Most of these errors in unit pricing are typically very small. The ones I have seen have either been wrong unit price used on sale or purchase by a day or two. Or a rounding of the decimal places.

somethingcorporate

dunstonh wrote: »

Most of these errors in unit pricing are typically very small. The ones I have seen have either been wrong unit price used on sale or purchase by a day or two. Or a rounding of the decimal places.

Fair enough, it would explain it.

ex-pat_scot

THe ones I've seen have tended to be delays in processing or minor error. Breach remediation tends to be where unit price calculation was slightly out, and you get the difference between the price you should have got and actually got.
In practice, there's a fair bit of internal scrutiny over the remediation - in the companies I've seen, they are very keen to ensure the figures are accurate, and the affected population of accounts is complete, rather than trying to minimise the cost to them of remediating