Pension contribution gone missing

vekma

On checking my account online at the people's pension my May contributions are not listed, I have had no response from HR and pension company claim they have no record of this, were do I go now, is there a pension ombudsman as its nearly £100.

Also my contributions are taken from net pay which I belive means I should get tax relief but none is showing, will this only appear end of tax year in April 2020.

triplea35

In the absence of someone more qualified to reply I would just offer this basic advice.

You should have received a payslip for the period which will outline both your and your employers pension contributions. You should keep your payslips, and especially the end of tax year. (P60) If there are no shown pension deductions on your May payslip then your enquiry should be directed to your employer rather than People's Pension

Can you ask a colleague to see if their contributions were paid to People's Pension so that you will know if the enquiry is specific to you or more general.
Are you trying to get a response from the correct Dept?. In my experience, working for large organisations, HR never dealt with these matters. Enquire directly with your Payroll/Accounts Dept if there is one.
Most enquiries I ever had were quite amicably resolved with a phone conversation but if you are getting no response put your enquiries in written form (email or letter) and keep a record for an internal complaint if needed.
There may be an acceptable explanation why you didn't pay pension contributions (you didn't earn enough, your length of employment, etc)

Albermarle

Going to the Ombudsman is a bit OTT at this stage . More than likely it is an admin blunder at your employer that should be easily resolved .
If your contribution is definitely coming from your net ( after tax ) pay, then two things can happen, depending on the pension provider.
1) The provider claims the money from HMRC and credits it to your account when it arrives . Usually 6 to 8 weeks later .
2) Some providers prefund the tax relief so credit it at the same time as your payment arrives , and then claim it back later
Not sure which the Peoples Pension does .

Thrugelmir

Was May when your contributions commenced?

Brynsam

vekma wrote: »

On checking my account online at the people's pension my May contributions are not listed, I have had no response from HR and pension company claim they have no record of this, were do I go now, is there a pension ombudsman as its nearly £100.

Also my contributions are taken from net pay which I belive means I should get tax relief but none is showing, will this only appear end of tax year in April 2020.

First stop for free, impartial help is TPAS: https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk. They'll be happy to help now. Try not to worry; 'missing' contributions, especially where the member has had the good sense to check their account as you have, can be traced and it's much easier to do so where the query is raised soon after the event.

Your contributions are paid out of post-tax pay and the Peoples Pension reclaims tax direct from HMRC and adds this to your pension savings with them. That's how 'tax relief' is dealt with for this sort of scheme; you won't see any change to your tax code, payslip or P60.

vekma

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Was May when your contributions commenced?

it was yes , i have read about 45 day wait but its way past that , my employer is known for dodgy practices thats why i mention ombudsman so soon, the pension regulator have referred me to them. still no response from employer, i have asked other employees some dont earn enough and the others dont even know you can check online each month, im a bit anal with these sort of things which is probably for the best given the circumstances

Thrugelmir

vekma wrote: »

it was yes , i have read about 45 day wait but its way past that

Are you sure that there isn't simply a time lag between deduction and payment over to the provider? If you are paid at the end of the month then May's contribution won't be credited until June.

vekma

:money:

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Are you sure that there isn't simply a time lag between deduction and payment over to the provider? If you are paid at the end of the month then May's contribution won't be credited until June.

It's September??

cns06

Are any payments showing?

vekma

cns06 wrote: »

Are any payments showing?

Yeah June and July and expecting August soon as 19th is last date unless that goes missing as well

JoeCrystal

vekma wrote: »

On checking my account online at the people's pension my May contributions are not listed, I have had no response from HR and pension company claim they have no record of this, were do I go now, is there a pension ombudsman as its nearly £100.

Also my contributions are taken from net pay which I belive means I should get tax relief, but none is showing, will this only appear end of tax year in April 2020.

Sound like a significant administrative error by your employer regarding the tax relief. I had the same problem with the tax relief which is almost resolved I got a thread regarding the missing tax relief here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5836709/p60-total-pay-confusion

It all boils down to what information the pension provider was getting from the employer via monthly uploads. The work pension provider did not get a breakdown from the employer on which of the full amount was employee contribution. It sounds like this might be the case with your employer. Does your account show which contributions are your and which contributions are your employer or, it is a total contribution from your employer?

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Are you sure that there isn't merely a time lag between deduction and payment over to the provider? If you are paid at the end of the month then May's contribution won't be credited until June.

It can be a time lag between your provider getting paid by the employer and applied to your fund as well! It usually takes 65 days on average from payslip and seeing it appearing online in your fund in my case.