Miners pension compensation

Luckyorigami

Hi everyone, can i have some advice please about miners pension compensation. I'm asking on behalf of my partner. He has received a letter from a solicitor s firm, but he hasn't contacted anyone, it's come out of the blue. He was made, his words, to sign over his pit pension before taking redundancy, just as the closures were happening. Now he's worried that not only did he be misinformed about his pension, but now that this firm is trying to scam him.
If anyoñe has any information or links or know a trusted firm he can talk too that would be great.
Thanks for reading

xylophone

He has received a letter from a solicitor s firm,

What exactly does the letter say?

xylophone

And what is meant by "forced to sign over his pension before redundancy"?

Sign over to whom?

How long was he a member of the scheme? How old was he when he was made redundant?

How old is he now?

Luckyorigami

The letter says that they are offering a free review, due to bad advice given via private pension providers.
He had done 8 years service/ work and contributions. He was told at the time that he had to sign his pension over or he would lose it. He was 20 when he started and left when he was 28. He is 52 this year.
Thank you

Luckyorigami

I believe his pension is now via royal London, but he is not sure, if they took it off someone else sorry.

GDB2222

So, the original advice was to transfer from the miners scheme to an insurance company. That probably was not good advice. Does your OH remember who advised him?

That firm had to undertake a compliance review years ago. Does your OH remember hearing from them at all?

Luckyorigami

As far as he can remember there hasn't been a review. He's dithering over who he spoke too. He now works with other examiners who also signed their pensions over, he's going to talk to them tomorrow to see what details he can get together. I'm also going to check his paperwork from years ago but i cant ever remember seeing any pit pension papers.
Thank you

Luckyorigami

He's just spoke to one of his work mates, it was transferred originally to Refuge, who in turn gave it over to royal London and there definitely was no review. Also his mate has had a letter, he thinks someone has passed their names to the firm thinking they were being of help.

sleepless_saver

He could give the Pensions Advisory Service a call 0300 123 1047, with the letter to hand. They may be able to shed some light on it.

xylophone

He joined the Final Salary DB scheme in 1985 when membership was compulsory and was made redundant in 1993?

I don't understand why he was unable to leave his benefits as a deferred pension within the scheme - was the reason why not explained to him?

Was there a scheme rule perhaps that his period of service was too short to qualify him for a deferred pension?

Or was the case that he could have left his benefits within the scheme and he was misinformed or did not understand that a transfer out was optional rather than compulsory? Who exactly advised him?

I suspect that in view of the fact that he would have had both pre and post 88 GMP, his pension was transferred into a S32 insurance policy with Refuge (now Royal London).

Does he have the policy document relating to his transferred pension?

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/33/review-33.htm

may be of interest.

Has he obtained a new state pension statement?

https://yourstatepension.campaign.gov.uk/?utm_source=Mail-Online&utm_medium=Partnership&utm_campaign=GTKY

GDB2222

xylophone wrote: »

He joined the Final Salary DB scheme in 1985 when membership was compulsory and was made redundant in 1993?

I don't understand why he was unable to leave his benefits as a deferred pension within the scheme - was the reason why not explained to him?

Was there a scheme rule perhaps that his period of service was too short to qualify him for a deferred pension?

Or was the case that he could have left his benefits within the scheme and he was misinformed or did not understand that a transfer out was optional rather than compulsory? Who exactly advised him?

I suspect that in view of the fact that he would have had both pre and post 88 GMP, his pension was transferred into a S32 insurance policy with Refuge (now Royal London).

Does he have the policy document relating to his transferred pension?

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/33/review-33.htm

may be of interest.

Has he obtained a new state pension statement?

https://yourstatepension.campaign.gov.uk/?utm_source=Mail-Online&utm_medium=Partnership&utm_campaign=GTKY

My recollection is that S32 policies were included as part of the personal pension mis-selling review. This would have been done 15-20 years ago, so easily forgotten by now. So, whilst I have to take the OP's word for it that this policy was not reviewed, I am somewhat surprised.

If it was reviewed, I would be surprised if there is a chance at a second go at claiming now, so many years later.

Generally, claims are time-barred after 15 years, even if the damage is "latent", ie not clear. In any case, everyone was well aware of potential losses on these transfers many years ago, so it's arguable the damage was not latent anyway. And this advice was given 24 years ago. So, any claim is probably time-barred.

Besides that, there are practical issues. The claim is against the adviser, not the insurance company. The Op doesn't know who gave the advice. The adviser's firm has probably long since closed, and the records have been destroyed. The adviser may have died or have no assets.

It's hard to understand why a firm of solicitors is interested in these cases now. I would be extremely sceptical about them, and I would ask lots of questions about who they are and why they think there could still even be the possibility of bringing a case at this stage.