Incompetent Pension administrators ..

deejaybee

Righty ho :


Bit of Background

I was employed by Lucas between 1990 and 1996, working in IT, and a member of their final salary pension scheme.


Around 1995 ish all the IT staff were outsourced to CSC Computer Services Ltd, and we had a choice of joining the CSC pension scheme or leaving our accrued benefits in the Lucas pension scheme. I think most, if not all, ( including myself) joined the CSC scheme.


I also transfered a previous pension into the Lucas Pension
Went into the " Lucas Transfer Account"


Original payment - 1792.00 on 7 May 1991


Value at 31 March 1994 - 2528.00









Deferred statement at date of leaving ( 22/03/1996 )


Total GMP - 304.72 per annum


Excess Fund Pension - 413.60 per annum


Total Deferred Pension - 718.32 per annum


GMP - This pension will be increased for each complete tax year from your date of leaving until you reach State Pension Age by 7% per annum.


Excess Fund Pension - This pension will be increased for the number of complete years from your date of leaving until you reach Normal Retirement Date, by the increase in the Retail prices index, up to a maximum of 5% per annum.


NB: This was changed to CPI from 2011.

deejaybee

Statement from April 2012

I can confirm when you left the CSC Computer Sciences Ltd Pension Scheme your deferred pension amounted to 939.34 per annum.


(i) GMP - 525.74 per annum


(ii) Other part - 413.60 per annum.


Revalued to date your deferred pension amounts to 2193.56 pa

deejaybee

Statement from March 2014

(i) GMP - 304.72 pa


(ii) Other Part - 413.60 pa


Revalued to date your deferred pension amounts to 1703.27

deejaybee

So i queried the difference in values between 2012 and 2014 and received following reply :

Thank you for your letter dated 6 April 2014. I apologise for the delay in writing to you.


I can confirm that the deferred pension benefits shown on our letter dated 31 March 2014 solely represent those accrued in the CSC Computer Sciences Pension Scheme between 2 August 1990 and 22 March 1996.


In addition you hold an AVC fund with Legal & General. This fund was set up in 1990 and contains the transfer value passed over from your previous scheme. The transfer in contained a GMP of 173.16 pa, which revalued while you were still active in line with Section 148 orders to 245.96 pa. Once you left CSC the revaluation changed to fixed rate ( 7% per annum) in line with the GMP shown in our letter. The current value of this additional benefit is 831.48 pa. I apologise that this information was missing from our recent letter.


When you decide to retire the AVC fund will be used to purchase the accrued GMB in the CSC Computer Sciences Ltd Pension Scheme. The pension you receive will be at least this value with any remaining fund used to buy a Pre 97 pension.




***** CONFUSED.COM I WAS !!!! ******

deejaybee

Statement from September 2015

GMP : 304.72 pa



Other part : 413.60 pa


Your deferred pension revalued to date amounts to 1860.78 pa


In addition i can confirm that your AVCs have a current fund value of 10,384.88

deejaybee

10 March 2017 : Answers to some questions i posed to them :

# We can confirm that the transfer from Lucas was received as a Money Purchase fund and was invested.


# We can confirm that the transfer in included a GMP that needs to be covered by the Money Purchase fund.


# We can confirm that the GMP and the Money Purchase fund value are the same benefit. and the Money Purchase fund is not classed as an AVC.


# We can confirm that as the transfer in benefit is invested as a Money Purchase fund, it was a requirement that we provided you with an SMPI statement each year, but this benefit was not an addition to your Final Salary benefits in the scheme.


Having reviewed your query we can confirm that as a member of the Lucas Pension Scheme, you were contracted out of SERPS for a period of service between these dates and so paid a reduced rate of NI contributions. This means that the Lucas Pension Scheme took responsibilty for paying GMP for this period rather than benefits being provided through SERPS. This amount of GMP is broadly equal to the amount that would have been paid by the state.


When your benefits were transferred to the CSC Computer Sciences Ltd Pension Scheme, this GMP pension was converted into Protected Rights, which was a Money Purchase Fund Value rather than a pension value. This was due to the fact that the CSC Computer Sciences Ltd Pension Scheme was contracted out on a Money Purchase basis rather than the Salary Related basis as described above.


We can confirm that Protected Rights were abolished in 2012 meaning that the Money Purchase Underpin is no longer applicable.

deejaybee

Statement from February 2017

GMP - 560.04 pa

Other Part - £413.60 pa


Your deferred pension , revalued to date amounts to 2992.22 pa

deejaybee

Statement from October 2019

GMP - 560.04 pa



Other Part - 158.28 pa


Your deferred pension, revalued to date amounts to 3118.38 per annum.

deejaybee

That brings things pretty much up to date.


As i mentioned in opening post, i have emailed Mercer asking them to explain the discrepancy between 2017 and 2019 statements, as yet have had no reply.


ta DJB

xylophone

Just realised why all this sounded familiar

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5601877/questions-re-a-csc-computer-sciences-ltd-deferred-pension&page=3

discrepancy between 2017 and 2019 statements, as yet have had no reply.

I don't understand it either.