Problem with LGPS AVCs with Prudential

Nebulous2

stephenadarglas said:

Gunner835 said:

jamjar92 said:

stephenadarglas said:

My wife retires in two months.  She wont take the risk of payment delays and has stopped payments.  Erred on the side of caution - they cant be trusted.

Regardless of the current issues, that is the recommended course of action anyway.

Further to these two posts... I am still missing 3 payments and am also looking to retire this year, Do i take it from the posts above that it is advisable to stop paying into the avc a month or two before my retirement date? why is this please?

Thanks

Jamjar is corrrect.  In normal circumstances two months would be appropriate so that the LGPS and Prudential can sync' so that there's no delays to your pension and lump sum however as biobill has alluded to this cannot be done until all the payments have been accounted for.  Therefore there could be delays to pension payments, and the advice you need, to make the correct decisions based on your own personal circumstances..

What happens if you don’t? I’ve posted already - I only started my AVC in my last two months. 

Does the pension get deferred until all the paperwork is done, or do you get several months pay together once it catches up? Or is there a choice? 

stephenadarglas

@Nebulous2 you have to speak to your own LA to see how it works.  One of the options is to use your AVCs to buy extra pension in the LGPS.  Please seek advice.

bioboybill

Gunner835 said:

Laycity said:

You can amend payments using the on line portal. I did this in early January and received a letter confirming the changes a few days later. I’m hopefully expecting the changes to be reflected in payroll this week for the end of March salary.

I too increased my payments in January via the online portal and got a letter saying the increase will apply the next month. however the increase was not applied and then i got a letter saying 'sorry we didnt tell your employer' so not only have i not had  this increase applied i am now missing 3 payments. In light of the lady who complained and got £125 i have complained again explaining my circumstances and that i looking at retiring this year so am likely to stop payments so need my missing payments applied and that if i don't i will escalate the complaint ie to the ombudsman. (i appreciate the time it takes for this to happen but if i threaten it, it may make things happen).

I told the Pru in an online message a week ago that I was going to the Financial Ombudsman and they didn’t even reply. They did include a leaflet about how to complain to the Ombudsman in their letter about needing more time. I think they know the Ombudsman takes months to do anything, so the Pru don’t care. God knows how the other poster got compensation out of them so quickly. They don’t give a toss about my missing £1800 or the person I know who hasn’t had their pension since last July.

Nebulous2

stephenadarglas said:

@Nebulous2 you have to speak to your own LA to see how it works.  One of the options is to use your AVCs to buy extra pension in the LGPS.  Please seek advice.

Cheers - I intend taking it as cash. I signed up for an AVC at Christmas, with no intention of retiring yet, expecting my first payment would come out at the end of January. I don’t have a lump sum for my pension at all, so the intention was to get some tax-free cash. My deductions didn’t start until February. I then made the decision to leave end of March. 

I’ve been told I will be sent my options after our March payroll run is notified to the pension fund. We also have an outstanding pay claim for 20/21. 

I can afford a delay in payment, but as I have retired early I have an actuarial reduction. It would be affordable for me to take the waiting time for this mess (partly of my own making) to resolve,  as a deferral period instead of as a delayed payment, but I’m not clear if that will be offered. 

OldBeanz

The wife received her letter yesterday about the new amount which we had requested online a week ago. The only fly in the ointment being that the amount they think we are paying at the moment is what we would have liked it to be and which they did not instigate.
We are sticking the equivalent taxed money into a savings account and since all the wife's taxable salary is going into the fund until she retires we expect them to pay the tax uplift for last year.

Silvertabby

Nebulous2 said:

stephenadarglas said:

@Nebulous2 you have to speak to your own LA to see how it works.  One of the options is to use your AVCs to buy extra pension in the LGPS.  Please seek advice.

Cheers - I intend taking it as cash. I signed up for an AVC at Christmas, with no intention of retiring yet, expecting my first payment would come out at the end of January. I don’t have a lump sum for my pension at all, so the intention was to get some tax-free cash. My deductions didn’t start until February. I then made the decision to leave end of March. 

I’ve been told I will be sent my options after our March payroll run is notified to the pension fund. We also have an outstanding pay claim for 20/21. 

I can afford a delay in payment, but as I have retired early I have an actuarial reduction. It would be affordable for me to take the waiting time for this mess (partly of my own making) to resolve,  as a deferral period instead of as a delayed payment, but I’m not clear if that will be offered. 

One of your pension options will be 'deferral of payment until a later date'.  Just go for that, then request revised options once everything has been sorted.

stephenadarglas

The web site has acknowledged there are issues and hope to have them rectified by the beginning of April

bioboybill

stephenadarglas said:

The web site has acknowledged there are issues and hope to have them rectified by the beginning of April

Yeah, that went on there a few days ago. On the other hand in January they were telling people it would be sorted by February. I don’t believe a word of it.

bioboybill

Put my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service today, as nothing seems to be happening to sort my case out and they just ignore all messages from me.

xylophone

https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en/pension-complaints
Have you complained in writing to Prudential and received a response?