Pension paid by mistake now want refund

todifor

New to this forum so I hope I am in the right place for advice please.

In 1987 I left my employment after just over 11 years services contributing to pension scheme from day one. I was advised by the Pensions Manager to go for a buy out and that BTR (Pension Providers)would defer their half.

In 1988 on the advise of my new company's brokers I was given quotes and opted for Sun Life.

In 1997 I received a letter from the PIA advising me that they were investigating mis-sold pensions. I signed the necessary documents and was awarded just over 8K in 1999 which was credited to Sun Life along with a further 1K from the then DSS.

It has now come to light from BTR that they should not have been paying this pension since 2005 and an overpayment of 28K has occurred but they are only collecting 9K for the last six years. Apparently the whole sum was transferred to Sun Life.

The questions I need answering are:
Can I be forced to repay the 9K?
What about the tax I have paid on this money?
The Sun Life pension is considerably lower then the BTR approximately £60 a month so do I have any readdress?

Furthermore, at no time after leaving my employment was I contacted by BTR offering details of the deferred sums or what my options were so I trusted what I was being advised by the my employing company.

Thank you for reading and hope someone can help.
Many thanks

dunstonh

Hopefully you will spot you havent completed your post.

Paul_Herring

dunstonh wrote: »

Hopefully you will spot you havent completed your post.

I couldn't make much sense of any of it...

xylophone

You worked for BTR from 1976 to 1987.

You were a member of a contributory Defined Benefit Pension Scheme?

The employer made a set contribution and you made a set contribution from salary?

You did not make any AVCs connected to the company pension?


If the above is correct then on transfer out then the whole of the value of the pension should have gone to the new provider (and indeed this is what actually seems to have happened) - it appears that the administrator of the BTR scheme (?) made an error in "keeping you on the books" as it were and in starting (and continuing) to pay you a pension from 2005.

The mistake has been discovered and presumably payments stopped.

They are not demanding repayment in full, presumably in acknowledgement of their error and tax you may have paid on the money.

The money was not yours, you have benefited from what might be seen as an interest free loan, and you are being asked to repay only a fraction of the sum.

See https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/content/publications-files/uploads/Mistakes_and_over_payments.pdf

The Sun Life pension is considerably lower then the BTR approximately £60 a month so do I have any readdress

?

You appear to have had some redress.

Speak to TPAS.

dunstonh

Can I be forced to repay the 9K?

Yes.

An error does not give you legal entitlement to the funds received. However, they should make sure the repayment is affordable. Paying it back over 6 years for example (matching the error period they are looking at).

What about the tax I have paid on this money?

Raise this with the scheme administrator. However, be aware that by writing off everything apart from the last 6 years, they are being pretty generous.

The Sun Life pension is considerably lower then the BTR approximately £60 a month so do I have any readdress?

The pension review back in the 90s sorted the redress.

Furthermore, at no time after leaving my employment was I contacted by BTR offering details of the deferred sums or what my options were so I trusted what I was being advised by the my employing company.

You are not normally provided anything after leaving employment and becoming a deferred member until you get to retirement or you ask for it.

xylophone

You are not normally provided anything after leaving employment and becoming a deferred member until you get to retirement or you ask for it.

It looks as as if the BTR scheme was COSR. In the normal way, the administrators should have supplied the OP with a statement of deferred benefits on leaving the scheme showing GMP and excess but they might not have done.

It is true that thereafter, the deferred pensioner might have heard nothing more until NRA - indeed, the pensioner might have been advised that it was up to him to contact the administrator to claim the pension at NRA.

The administrator would have had to provide the statement of deferred benefits to Sun Life when the buyout (S32?) was arranged.

Brynsam

dunstonh wrote: »

Raise this with the scheme administrator. However, be aware that by writing off everything apart from the last 6 years, they are being pretty generous.

That used to be the case, but the Pensions Ombudsman has now made it clear that any such claim for repayment can only go back 6 years in accordance with the Statute of Limitations, so generosity doesn't come into it.

It may be that the scheme can't even reclaim for six years, depending on the financial position of the overpaid member. See https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/guidance/overpayments/overpayments-case-1/

todifor

Thank you for your replies.
Whilst I may had had redress in 1999 it is still considerably short on the two pensions. There is no way I would have opted out of BTR had I have been in receipt of the full facts.

I will obviously pursue this further but it seems unfair that people should suffer as a result of poor administration and bad advice.
.

dunstonh

Whilst I may had had redress in 1999 it is still considerably short on the two pensions. There is no way I would have opted out of BTR had I have been in receipt of the full facts.

And redress was based on that.

todifor

I am updating this thread in order for people in similar circumstances.

After providing the scheme with lots of information based on my circumstances, they wanted me to pay £500 per year, bearing in mind I am nearly 74 to pay back £9 would probably never happen. I took it to the Ombudsman and within 2 weeks of them receiving the papers the scheme have now confirmed that they will not be pursuing this amount.

Thank you to Brynsam for the link, this was extremely helpful in helping me put my case together.