Trying to locate a pension

Wordlac

My mother worked for Barclays Bank back in the seventies . She is now retired and trying to locate her Barclays pension but Barclays Bank say they can’t find her on their records and are saying she has to provide her old payroll number which she doesn’t know . How can she locate her pension ? Barclays are being very unhelpful . 

garmeg

Wordlac said:

My mother worked for Barclays Bank back in the seventies . She is now retired and trying to locate her Barclays pension but Barclays Bank say they can’t find her on their records and are saying she has to provide her old payroll number which she doesn’t know . How can she locate her pension ? Barclays are being very unhelpful . 

National Insurance Number?

If she left before 1975 it is possible that no deferred pension exists. Also was she a part timer because they were generally not included in the pension scheme at that time?

Brynsam

Any idea what her dates of service were, if only in terms of years of continuous service?  Barclays may not be able to 'be helpful' if there's no pension there to find. This may be the case if she:

1. left employment with Barclays before 6 April 1975
2. left after 5 April 1975 but had less than 5 years of pension scheme membership and/or was under the age of 26 when she left
3. worked part time (as mentioned above). 

Wordlac

Thanks so much guys . She was a part timer so I’m guessing maybe she didn’t qualify . 

I will check her dates but from memory she left in about 1978 . 

PBOYD66

Hi , looking for some help / advice / sanity..... I worked for Barclays early 90s and left with quite a high salary ( touching 30k back then which was and still is high to me)  Im coming up to 55 - have contacted Wills Towers Watson who I was told administer my old Barclays pension -UK1964 SCHEME. They have told me - quote - 'we can see your pension on our records etc but it was transferred out somewhere in late 1994 and we have no idea where ??'  Now I didnt transfer it anywhere - I have even checked my next employer just in case I had completely blanked it out but they have confirmed, in writing, that they have never had any transfer in (Towers coincidentally adminster the next compnays pension too so it was easy to check). It has been sat as an official complaint with Towers for 3 months - they keep saying we cannot find who/where it went to or what has happened to it and they have referred back to Barclays and their HR for investigation . I didnt leave the Company on the best terms as they refused to reolcate me ( long story) and ended up getting a very small redundancy payout and leaving - there were some very unscrupulous activities went on at the time which makes me wonder could someone internally have done something with my pension ? The Ombudsman is waiting for a final answer from Towers/Barclays before they formally take it on for me, but they seemed absolutely astonished at what I was being told - ie that they can provide no proof/records of where they alledgedly sent it to. The worst bit of this is that I have an ex colleague who worked 3 months less than me there ( at the same time) and on a slightly less final salary and they have just hit 55 and taken £61k tax free and has a remainding pot of over £200k ! So it is life changing money ( especially as I am currently redundant) and they say they cant find where it has gone?? Please, has anyone had any experience even close to this as it is making me quite ill or any suggestion would be appreciated so much.  

Silvertabby

PBOYD66 said:

Hi , looking for some help / advice / sanity..... I worked for Barclays early 90s and left with quite a high salary ( touching 30k back then which was and still is high to me)  Im coming up to 55 - have contacted Wills Towers Watson who I was told administer my old Barclays pension -UK1964 SCHEME. They have told me - quote - 'we can see your pension on our records etc but it was transferred out somewhere in late 1994 and we have no idea where ??'  Now I didnt transfer it anywhere - I have even checked my next employer just in case I had completely blanked it out but they have confirmed, in writing, that they have never had any transfer in (Towers coincidentally adminster the next compnays pension too so it was easy to check). It has been sat as an official complaint with Towers for 3 months - they keep saying we cannot find who/where it went to or what has happened to it and they have referred back to Barclays and their HR for investigation . I didnt leave the Company on the best terms as they refused to reolcate me ( long story) and ended up getting a very small redundancy payout and leaving - there were some very unscrupulous activities went on at the time which makes me wonder could someone internally have done something with my pension ? The Ombudsman is waiting for a final answer from Towers/Barclays before they formally take it on for me, but they seemed absolutely astonished at what I was being told - ie that they can provide no proof/records of where they alledgedly sent it to. The worst bit of this is that I have an ex colleague who worked 3 months less than me there ( at the same time) and on a slightly less final salary and they have just hit 55 and taken £61k tax free and has a remainding pot of over £200k ! So it is life changing money ( especially as I am currently redundant) and they say they cant find where it has gone?? Please, has anyone had any experience even close to this as it is making me quite ill or any suggestion would be appreciated so much.  

This is cobblers.  If they hold pension records for you, and your benefits were indeed transferred out, then they would have copies of your instructions and details of the transfer payment made.

I wonder if your computerised records were updated at some point, and that someone's fat finger input the code for transferred instead of deferred ? 

Hope the Ombudsman gets this sorted for you,

Dox

PBOYD66 said:

I didnt leave the Company on the best terms as they refused to reolcate me ( long story) and ended up getting a very small redundancy payout and leaving - there were some very unscrupulous activities went on at the time which makes me wonder could someone internally have done something with my pension ?  

No. Nobody internally could have influenced the trustees of the scheme in the way you fear. Your pension is snuggled somewhere perfectly safe, and just needs finding; and it will be found.

PBOYD66 said:

The worst bit of this is that I have an ex colleague who worked 3 months less than me there ( at the same time) and on a slightly less final salary and they have just hit 55 and taken £61k tax free and has a remainding pot of over £200k ! 

Are you sure you are both in the same scheme? If your colleague has taken a £61K tax free lump sum, and has a 'pot' of over £200K, then that sounds like a defined contribution scheme - defined benefit schemes don't have 'pots'.

Brynsam

Dox said:

PBOYD66 said:

I didnt leave the Company on the best terms as they refused to reolcate me ( long story) and ended up getting a very small redundancy payout and leaving - there were some very unscrupulous activities went on at the time which makes me wonder could someone internally have done something with my pension ?  

No. Nobody internally could have influenced the trustees of the scheme in the way you fear. Your pension is snuggled somewhere perfectly safe, and just needs finding; and it will be found.

And if it isn't found, you won't be the one to has to suffer. The administrators have found a record, so there is no doubt you have a deferred pension. They either need to reinstate your as a deferred pensioner of the Barclays scheme, or identify who received the transfer. My money's on the former option.

PBOYD66

Thanks for the reply , I really appreciate it. Ill check again with my colleague. She said she had around 270k and was able to take £61k which she has just done ( ive seen it !!). We are both in the UK 1964 scheme. Im not great on pensions in general so  I may be wording some bits wrong though so forgive me. But my figures are right ( for her as I say ive seen it in black and white) and the nonsense ive experienced so far from Towers is obviously 100% accurate. You have reassured me more than you know that they will find it and nothing dodgy can have happened.   

PBOYD66

Thanks too Silvertabby im so grateful. Towers said Barclays administered my pension till 2012 when it was transferred (to Towers), so whoever did what they did in late 1994 was at Barclays in their HR / Pensions Dept and that is what is being investigated right now. They said they can 'see my details'( no figures)  but where it has 'transferred to' on their computer records it is just left blank?? They said they have never ever seen that before, ever ( typical me) - and that Barclays will need to get into their paper filing cabinets to get to the bottom of it. That was three months ago ( I also enquiered in 2015 and was told to go the Pensions Tracing Service, even tho Towers had my info there so didnt need a trace ...) I pushed it to one side but now its coming up to time re 55

PBOYD66

**UPDATE** After raising this to the highest level possible, an investigation took place and my pension has now been 'found' There was/is £150 000 in it......... I will be eternally grateful to the people on here who responded to me and kept me sane.Thankyou from the bottom of my heart XX. Ps How do you lose £150k, and how many more have been 'lost '??