Nest Pensions: Useless!

Jenvv17

Hello everyone, have decided to kick start off this forum as have had some terrible experiences with Nest Pension provider and looking at their Facebook page I'm not the only one!

The purpose of this thread is to see what problems other people have come across and whether they have ever managed to resolve them.

In my instance, I've been trying to help my mum, who has now hit retirement age, to extract her pension pot but after sending all the information they have requested 3 times, we are still no closer to getting hold of her money. The amount in question is a pittance at less than £300 but at the end of the day its her money and is entitled to it. They keep claiming the name on the account doesn't match and so won't release the funds. Requests to just send a cheque seeing as they confirmed her identity and address fall on deaf ears. Funnily enough whenever we have had to set up new direct debits after changing utilities we never have these problems.

xylophone

Try https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/

Mnd

I hope nest solve this by April, I've got a small sum that I intend to tax out then.good luck and keep us informed

Malthusian

Send them a letter setting out the problem and include the words "Please treat this as a formal complaint".

Under FCA regulations they must formally acknowledge the complaint "promptly" and send you a final response within eight weeks. Their complaints department should hopefully resolve the problem and get your mother's money paid out while they're doing that.

Why doesn't the name on the account match her own? If she has changed her name then a copy of the marriage certificate / deed poll should sort it out.

Jenvv17

Thanks Malthusian, I will give that a go.

The issue around the name not matching is non sensical as my mother's name hasn't changed in the past 50 years, i.e following marriage and the name on the account is the same one that is the on the pension scheme as its the only one she has. We have given the account details three separate times now so I can't put it down to a typo as the same mistake would not have happened three times and trying to get them to explain what exactly they are seeing when they look up the account we have provided is met with a robotic response of 'the name doesn't match'. I just feel like they are purposely being unhelpful so we get fed up and give up.

Novice_investor101

If it's Nest, then it was most probably set up for her by an employer?
You wouldn't believe how often employers set up Auto Enrolment schemes for their employees and get the details wrong - most common are wrong name (for instance if your birth certificate/passport etc says Mr Brian Edward Smith but you're informally known as Ed, it gets applied for as Mr Edward Smith), spelling mistakes in the name & wrong date of birth.
That's possibly what's happened here. They may require proof of identity (certified copy of passport etc) before they can release any money.
They cannot release money without absolute certainty the "Mr Brian Edward Smith" & "Mr Edward Smith" are actually the same person...
Can your mother call them & ask for clarity of what the problem actually is?

mumf

I agree with that last post.My boss set up the NEST scheme,overseen by his account.Owing to crap handwriting on both their parts,all details were sent to a neighbour! After six months this was discovered,and the neighbour ( we cannot stand each other) denied knowledge. Its now sorted.

Zanderman

NEST_Pensions wrote: »

Removed by forum team.

Well you could address the other problems people are reporting regularly re NEST - which relate to transfers in. You, NEST, insist on the previous pension provider filling in a form whereas the convention is that the previous pension provider expects you, NEST, to fill in a form.

There are reports on this forum (and I may well add to them soon, as I'm just about to start trying, with some trepidation, to transfer into NEST) that this approach goes on for months, with both sides blaming the other. Do NEST have any comment and/or a solution to this?

Thanks

(and btw, the convention on MSE Forum, if you're posting as a rep of a company, is to make a statement to that effect and that you have MSE permission to post as a company rep, which is a requirement if you are doing so)

Edited to add - here are three threads outlining the issue:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5731390
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5665098
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5732027