Charge for Pension Pot value

trayle63

Morning. I just need to find out if it's usual for a company to charge an employee to find out how much their pension is worth in this case the charge is £250? We get an annual statement but the pension has a guarantee portion and they won't give us a value if taken early unless we pay the charge. The charge is then refunded if the pension is taken out. Any advice would be appreciated we are middle 50s. Many thanks

AnotherJoe

Is your pension Defined Benefit? Are you asking for the "CETV", eg what they would pay in cash to another pension company if you wished to withdraw it?
If so ISTR that many companies will only provide one such quote and then want payment for subsequent ones. Payment for the first quote seems harsh.

Before you get a quote you might want to investigate the costs of transferring, you need an IFA to approve and a scheme to receive. This seems to be getting harder to do in both respects, and costs for the IFA are often in the range of 10x or more your quote for getting a CETV.

If you provide more figures and the company name people may be able to estimate what the CETV would be anyway judging by recent experiences.

Brynsam

If you have left the scheme (but not necessarily the employer) and are at least a year younger than the scheme's retirement age , you have a statutory entitlement to one CETV, without charge, in any 12 month period. Ask the trustees or the pension scheme administrator (not the employer) why you are being asked to pay. If you still don't get any joy, TPAS is your friend in need: https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk

If you are still building up benefits in the scheme, then different rules apply and it is likely a charge would be made to deter too many 'idle' requests. Providing the information isn't just 'push a button' and frequently requires manual calculations by the scheme's actuary. It may look expensive, but a charge of £250 would do little more than cover the costs of providing this information.

trayle63

He is still working for the company and has never asked for a figure before. A colleague has been in a battle for a year or so because he feels he shouldn't have to pay the £250 charge either. He does want to put the money somewhere else, or maybe a draw down? Sorry pensions are totally beyond me.

Brynsam

trayle63 wrote: »

He is still working for the company and has never asked for a figure before. A colleague has been in a battle for a year or so because he feels he shouldn't have to pay the £250 charge either. He does want to put the money somewhere else, or maybe a draw down? Sorry pensions are totally beyond me.

Doesn't make any difference - if he is still actively building up benefits in the pension scheme, the trustees can levy a charge for providing the information. His colleague has already demonstrated it is a waste of time to dispute this.

badmemory

Of course he could always decide to leave his companies pension scheme altogether. Hiis company would love this & it would probably save him from any future redundancies as he would be cheaper than any of his co-workers. It obviously will not have been his own personal best move but will maybe save the £250 charge.