Advice please ref PPF

doris540

My husband got made redundant after 30 years and over 500 jobs were lost . Althou some of the company was took over and many jobs were TUPE over. The pension statement over the last four of five years has been later and later every year. He was made redundant in September. and has had to claim all his owed money from the government wages redundancy etc. We are now in December and still no pension statement. Needless to say we have contacted the pension admin company who send the statements and also the trustees of the pension whom sadly seem to be under the impression that whilst the old DB part of the pension is been considered for transfer over into the PPF with a reported eye watering £117 million black hole. are no longer answerable or can help in anyway. Which after speaking to someone i gather is far from the case. The people who are already taking their DB pension will get 100 per cent whilst the rest of us who are yet to retire wont get what we should of. I gather as it stands we should see 90% however the government moving the goalposts certainly cant be ruled out with more and more schemes been taken over by the PPF.. The pension admin company are basically next to useless and weve been told at least three times that the statements have been sorted and are already to be sent out that was two months ago last email the response was still waiting on some info. Now our concerns are that in the DC scheme that replaced the old DB scheme that monies contributed have possibly not been credited to the pot so to speak as the figure that was quoted of what was in his DC pot were far from what last years figure was. We realise the stock market etc has had a effect but i believe that some recovery is evident. The pension admin company could not say what monies if any had been credited to the pot since the last statement which i find almost impossible to believe. First question is the figures that appear on the statement are they provided by the Employer and who actually invests the money is it the employer or the Pension admin company. Also when a pension enters the PPF which can take two years plus can you still obtain a lump sum ive heard conflicting stories fully appreciate that the DC scheme is totally different and The PPF only considers the DB scheme. Also he had life insurance combined with the DB scheme which id imagine is no more and also with a DB scheme does it still provide a widows pension if anything happens etc. Hes now 58 and this has come as a real blow and has hit our future plans for six. If the company has not administered the contributions correctly whats the next step. The trustees seem very much on the back foot. The company hid the true financial state for along time and left what appears some £23 million of unsecured debt with suppliers and creditors been told they will only get 1p in the pound .Also the admin company XPS have said they cant offer any CETV values either now the scheme is been considered for the PPF.. Which again ive been told is incorrect and they must do so up until the date is confirmed that the scheme is transfered. This is i presume so that they can continue to pay those that have already took their pensions as if everybody who hasnt retired wanted out there would be no money left..Hes also got £60k pot with Pru which did take a hit during the summer but has now almost recovered to where it was prior .The thought now is also to transfer what is in the DC scheme into The Pru which is about another £60k.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Paragraphs might help get you some responses

hyubh

doris540 said:

My husband got made redundant after 30 years and over 500 jobs were lost .

A few points (your post currently is a bit hard to read as it's a wall of text) -

• The PPF is very stable, don't worry about that, though partly because PPF compensation (i.e. replacement pension) is standardised, much much better than nothing, but not trying to be supergenerous. It sounds like you've already looked on the PPF website for details of how PFF compensation works, though if not do so, because it's clearly laid out (https://www.ppf.co.uk/what-it-means-ppf). Members *under normal pension age* get a 10% haircut yes, though the reduction of pension increases to statutory minimum is universal.
• When a scheme is in the PPF assessment period, unless a CETV had already been requested and is due to be provided, then transfers out generally cease (see the Pensions Advisory Service website's bit on this).
• You're right, the DB and DC will be dealt with completely separately, and the DC concern will be whether contributions due to be paid actually have or not (rather than the employer having taken existing funds - they will have no control over that).

Brynsam

doris540 said:

Also the admin company XPS have said they cant offer any CETV values either now the scheme is been considered for the PPF.. Which again ive been told is incorrect and they must do so up until the date is confirmed that the scheme is transfered. This is i presume so that they can continue to pay those that have already took their pensions as if everybody who hasnt retired wanted out there would be no money left..Hes also got £60k pot with Pru which did take a hit during the summer but has now almost recovered to where it was prior .The thought now is also to transfer what is in the DC scheme into The Pru which is about another £60k.

Told by whom? Someone who knows more about pensions than professional scheme administrators? XPS are correct; they can't issue new transfer values, because they won't know what basis to use until the state of the scheme is accurately assessed and a decision taken about whether it will be admitted to the PPF. It may not be, depending on whether the scheme is 'solvent enough' to pay benefits at least as good as those provided by PPF 'compensation' (their terminology for the payments they make).