NOW PENSIONS -worried about this provider

Microhead

Hi all

I was automatically enrolled into NOW PENSIONS through my employer 's workplace pension.
I have been making additional voluntary contributions (5%) for the last 18 months or so.
I now see that NOW PENSIONS have been getting a lot of bad press recently and historically. I am very concerned by some of the things I have read (i.e. various problems with communication , payouts, moving , etc) and now contemplating whether to at least stop making these additional contributions.

What do you guys think?

AnotherJoe

I think you should make those additional contributions somewhere even if not in NOW.
(Unless your employer is matching some or all of that 5% in which case stick with it)

Malthusian

Is getting the money paid out or transferred an imminent concern for you?

You should certainly continue the contributions if the employer is matching them.

Assuming they're not: I wouldn't put money in Now Pensions. It's designed to be a cheap solution for signing employees up to en masse, and if you had a free choice you wouldn't choose them. The same as if you were deciding where to go out for a meal, you wouldn't eat in a factory canteen. However, if you are working in the factory, the canteen usually does a perfectly good job of giving you your lunch. Having your auto-enrolment pension with NOW Pensions and your 5% extra with ANOther Pensions may be more trouble than it is worth, and the other option is to wait until you leave your employer and transfer the whole lot to a better provider in one go.

Microhead

There is no imminent concern.
My employer only pays in the statutory minimum.

Been reading stories of people having trouble trying to transfer their pensions over, people not being able to get access to their money, due to incompetent workers there.

I don't want to get into these kind of problems/hassles.

Malthusian

Since you already have money with them, you are going to eventually have to go through the hassle of trying to transfer or access your pension, whether or not you pay further money in.

If your concern is that NOW are too slow at transferring pensions, then you can't solve that problem by transferring your pension. If you don't want to get into this kind of hassle, then the only option is to leave it where it is - and hope they sort out their servicing issues by the time you actually *need* to transfer it.

If you don't mind the extra admin, it wouldn't be a bad idea to direct the 5% contributions to your own plan. At least then if you do get any hassle claiming the Now Pension, you have your private pension to live off in the meantime.

spon1979

Now are a nightmare - you have to chase them repeatedly for anything.


Their annual charge is big enough to dent whatever contributions you make significantly, so you'll end up with next to nothing anyway.


I'd suggest going anywhere else - they are a nonsense firm.

Malthusian

spon1979 wrote: »

Their annual charge is big enough to dent whatever contributions you make significantly, so you'll end up with next to nothing anyway.

If £18 a year is enough to erode your pension fund down to next to nothing, you would have had next to nothing even without it.

The 0.3% AMC is competitive for employer schemes and significantly lower than most personal pension arrangements.

dunstonh

Their annual charge is big enough to dent whatever contributions you make significantly, so you'll end up with next to nothing anyway.

Their AMC is not big. It certainly cant erode your value to zero as you suggest.

I'd suggest going anywhere else - they are a nonsense firm.

Their admin is awful. That cannot be denied. However, seeing as they mostly deal in auto-enrolment with employer contributions, you don't really have a lot of choice if you want the free money from the employer.

Browntoa

Think it is par for the course for most pension admin

I'm in one of the big DB ones , they cannot answer simple questions , fail to respond to or chase logged enquiries

Atrocious ....

Dox

What makes you think you'll fare any better elsewhere?

fudgecat

I am a supply teacher and have been auto enrolled into the Now pensions scheme. As well as the 0.3%, they will charge £1.50 flat rate admin per month from April 18. As I only work occasional odd days here and there, my pay can be as low as £150.00 per month. I am taking 4 months off to look after my grandson. In that time £6.00 plus 0.3% will be taken from my fund currently standing at £44.00, which is in excess of 10% of the fund. I have cancelled my auto enrolment, as it is not cost effective to have it in place in my particular circumstances. I am already in receipt of a Teachers pension (from age 60) and a small Civil Service Pension, which I have not yet claimed. I would be interested to know if I am missing anything! Being paid through an Umbrella company (no choice in this), for NI contributions I am effectively my own employer.