Final Salary Pension Closing

thecakefairy7

Hi All,


I have had a Final Salary Pension for 30 years.
It has just been announced that it is closing.
We are being made redundant sometime in the future, so we would have ceased paying into the pension anyway.
Our current pension merged with another scheme with slightly different terms of which some of us can retire at 58 with no reduction in our pension.
Others can retire at 55 but with reduction.
In a letter we received, these terms were unchanged.
In a presentation we had with the pension provider, the terms have changed and we can now only retire at 55 with penalty, unless you retire before the site closes which is some way off yet but most of us will not be 58.
We have asked and asked which is correct but a week later, no reply! Others have had replies saying it will be added to the list of questions regarding consultation but we're saying how can we consult if we are not even sure what our terms our? I would have nothing to say if there is no change to the original agreement but I'd have a lot to say if it suddenly changes.
My thought is, they must know what they intended to say, so it is just a case of clarification.
Also, given that we have all received the same terms and for the last 30 years, we have been able to retire at 58, surely it is age discrimination to not allow everyone the same terms.
Apparently the pension is well funded.
I'm not really sure where to go with this as we can't even get a reply from our head office as to which statement is correct!
Any advice?

Albermarle

The first two points that come to mind are :
1) I do not think the scheme can unilaterally alter your pension rules in the way you describe , but I am not a legal expert
2) When a final salary scheme closes it usually means that there will be no more new members and current members will stop contributing and building up pension years. However the scheme itself does not close as such , as it has to keep paying out the pension benefits for many years to come.
Also if you leave a company voluntarily or not , you still have the same rights as a 'deferred pensioner' as those still working .
So the fact it is 'closing' and you may be made redundant should not affect any pension entitlements in future

xylophone

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

may be worth a chat.

thecakefairy7

Thank you for your help.
One of my colleagues has been in touch with the Pensions Advisory Service who have obviously agreed it is not right that we have not received clarification. They have given them further advice for if it turns out they are trying to change our terms and conditions. My colleague has asked for a copy which apparently they cannot refuse to give.
Another colleague has contacted someone from the actual pension company, again, agrees we need to know but neither can actually make them answer at this stage.
We are being made redundant at a later date and I'm finding that a lot of things I thought were not allowed, it turns out they are, so I'm very negative regarding all of these processes and am 99% expecting the worse case scenario.
Our head office is miles away, so it is easy for them to ignore us and avoid answering.
It's been a week now since the two conflicting scenarios were discovered. The closing date for consultation is end of Feb, so there's a bit of time.
Of course, consultation is pretty worthless in itself as whatever proposals/observations are put forward, the company have already decided what they are doing anyway!!!