NHS Pensions Board being difficult

BAFE

Hi all I wonder if you can give me any advice.

I'm trying to track down a pension I had when I was in the NHS many years ago. They have come back to me and said that the addess I gave them doesn't match what they have on record. I assured them that I have never lived in any other house in my life and that the address I gave them was the correct one.

they have now come back to me and said that the other details such as when I left employment aren't correct - but they are!!!!!

Why are they being difficult and more importantly, why did they lie about the address?

Who could I complain too.

Marcon

They aren't being difficult, just incompetent!

Free help is at hand: https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/pension-problems

hyubh

BAFE wrote: »

I'm trying to track down a pension I had when I was in the NHS many years ago. They have come back to me and said that the addess I gave them doesn't match what they have on record. I assured them that I have never lived in any other house in my life and that the address I gave them was the correct one.

they have now come back to me and said that the other details such as when I left employment aren't correct - but they are!!!!!

Why are they being difficult and more importantly, why did they lie about the address?

Who could I complain too.

Not quite clear how it is 'lying' if the identifying details they have for you (not only the address) don't agree? What if you weren't who you claimed to be...?

First thing should be to get the administrator to believe who you say you are, which should be easy enough (e.g. passport copy). Next thing will be to sort our your pensionable service (the administrator will be dependent on whatever details the employer - trust, hospital, practice, whatever - gave to them at the time). E.g., do you still have any old payslips that support your claim that you should have more pensionable service than they hold on record...? Also, what did you deferred benefit statement on leaving say...?

hyubh

Marcon wrote: »

They aren't being difficult, just incompetent!

Disagree, it's quite right the administrator does some checks before discussing someone's pension details.

Silvertabby

BAFE wrote: »

Hi all I wonder if you can give me any advice.

I'm trying to track down a pension I had when I was in the NHS many years ago. They have come back to me and said that the addess I gave them doesn't match what they have on record. I assured them that I have never lived in any other house in my life and that the address I gave them was the correct one.

they have now come back to me and said that the other details such as when I left employment aren't correct - but they are!!!!!

Why are they being difficult and more importantly, why did they lie about the address?

Who could I complain too.

They are not being difficult - they are just doing their job. NHS pensions is a HUGE scheme and the first thing that popped into my mind is that they have accessed the pensions record of someone with exactly the same name as you (seen this happen with the LGPS, which is a much smaller scheme).

Which leads to the possibility that they no longer hold your own records on the NHS database - perhaps because you took a refund of your contributions when you left, or transferred your benefits to your new employer's scheme?

You say 'many years ago', but can you be more specific - ie, post the dates you joined, left and if you were under 25 when you left.

Marcon

hyubh wrote: »

Disagree, it's quite right the administrator does some checks before discussing someone's pension details.

Quite - but there are ways to do that and ways not to do that...and from OP's post it sounds as if this particular set of checks falls into the latter category.

OP - have you provided your NI number, which would be a suitable unique identifier?

xylophone

What documentary proof do you have of your employment/membership of the pension scheme?

Do you have a statement of deferred benefits on leaving employment?

Are you still under state pension age? If so,have you obtained a new state pension statement?

See post 23 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6009662/warning-double-check-state-pension-forecasts-after-govt-admits-significant-errors-mse-news&page=2

DWP holds a detailed record of the periods of contracted-out and contracted-in employment, indexed by NI number.

The NHS was contracted out - check your dates of employment.

hyubh

Marcon wrote: »

Quite - but there are ways to do that and ways not to do that...and from OP's post it sounds as if this particular set of checks falls into the latter category.

Yes, if the administrator reported any details back without being confident the OP was who they claimed they were. It isn't clear from the opening post whether this was the case or not, but providing an actual address (for example) in response to a speculative one that differed would be falling for a classic social engineering trick.

Not saying the OP isn't genuine, the point is a competent fraudster wouldn't appear any different. Getting hands on a pension wouldn't even need to be the aim (in fact, it probably wouldn't be), just acquiring accurate personal details from a third party would be.