Pension Lump Sum error

Markdavid1962

Can anyone offer any advice please on my pension lump sum payment and if I have case for claiming the difference due to an error made by Fidelity

I gave notice on 13th September that I wanted to take the 25% tax lump sum from My Lotus workplace pension after completing the process I was told the values etc (Pension pot £95717) with the 25% being £23929 and it would take 5 days to complete

I was then infomed a couple of days later by Fidelity that the Pension was in a blackout until October 3rd and no transactions could be processed and if there was a 5% variance either way they would call me to confirm.

I accepted the above and on October 3rd, I called Fidelity and they confirmed the revised figures (Pension pot £98016) and lump sum £24,504 and this was confirmed all was in order and this would be paid out in 5 days time. No further action required.

On October 10th I followed up again as no lump sum payment had been received, only to be told that "the payments team and blocked the payment" as someone had forgotten to clear the payment with the Lotus trustees and they had just requested this. I asked why no one had informed me and why this had not been done in September and I was told it was an oversight on Fidelitys part.
I then requested to speak to a manager as I was losing confidence in what I was being told, I was put through to a senior advisor who confirmed the details and I was assured that the correct amount would be paid out as per Oct 3rd figures and I would not lose any money as the error was on Fidelity's side and that they would try and pay this out in 3 working days once the Lotus Trustees approved it.
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In the background I contacted the Lotus Trustees directly and they gave their approval on the 11th October which I also confirmed with Emma and I was told they payment was being released.
On the 16th October I called yet again as still no lump sum payment and spoke to yet another person and then left a message for the senior advisor at 09:15 , however I had to call back at 16:00 as no one had called me.(senior advisor was in training all day - she did get my message)

I checked my planviewer on the 16th October and the amount which has been paid out was £22,792, (based on a value of £91,168), this is a shortfall of £1712 compared to the agreed figure on October 3rd as the values had gone down due to the markets performance.

I have rasied a complaint and been told that this will be looked in to by the complaints department and they will advice me in 4 weeks, if they had completed this in September then the payment would have been made on the October 3rd value not October 10th value.

In addition I have contacted the Lotus trustees who have confirmed when Fidelity first requested the approval in October (which included an email with an incomplete email address) and they only became aware of the request due to my email) I have this in an email from the Lotus Trustees.

I should not be out of pocket by £1712 due to Fidelity making an error.

Any advice on how to proceed please

xylophone

Any advice on how to proceed please

Wait for the formal response to your complaint?

Thrugelmir

Markdavid1962 wrote: »

Any advice on how to proceed please

Await the outcome of the investigation. There's no other way of speeding matters up.

Markdavid1962

Thanks everyone, I have just received my answer from my complaint and they are in agreement that I lost money due to their error and they will make a payment within 20 days