Problem with LGPS AVCs with Prudential

jamjar92

bioboybill said:

My pension fund administration manager said that irrespective of any web issue they are breaking the Service Level Agreement with the pension fund. Under the SLA the money must be invested within 28 days of being decucted from wages. He told me they will be complaining at the highest level. There is no way that somebody who retired in July should be waiting for payment the next February.

They would probably say it has in the backend system, but its an issue in the public facing therefore it meets the SLA. I think your Novembers payment been posted in December, at the price it was on that day.

jamjar92

AlanP_2 said:

One wonders why they upgraded a system in the middle of having restricted staff available when the new site does not appear to offer anything new.

It might be an underlying technology / infrastructure issue has forced the change. We have had to migrate a few old applications to more modern solutions recently as underlying versions of Windows and database software were un-supported and hence security risks whilst the applications themselves couldn't run on newer versions.

Rock & Hard Place, and benefit to user a total side issue in reality.

I agree. I think it probably as something to do the open pension platform that was touted by the goverment a few years ago to allow all your pensions to be viewed in a single platform, similar to the way open banking works now.

bioboybill

jamjar92 said:

bioboybill said:

My pension fund administration manager said that irrespective of any web issue they are breaking the Service Level Agreement with the pension fund. Under the SLA the money must be invested within 28 days of being decucted from wages. He told me they will be complaining at the highest level. There is no way that somebody who retired in July should be waiting for payment the next February.

They would probably say it has in the backend system, but its an issue in the public facing therefore it meets the SLA. I think your Novembers payment been posted in December, at the price it was on that day.

Yes, I’m sure that’s most likely what they would say, but as I said before my AVC issue is the tip of the iceberg. It doesn’t explain away the stories of people retiring from work and still waiting for a penny from the Pru 7 or 8 months later. Or one case I read where a woman put a £10K lump sum in to their pot 5 months ago and not only was it not showing but she couldn’t get a simple receipt for the money despite being promised it was in the post repeatedly. When I read this stuff it makes me nervous that when I retire I will also have trouble getting my money.

jamjar92

@bioboybill are these LGPS AVC retirees? On a LGPS pre-retirement seminar a few days ago they said you tell the LGPS your retirement date, and they deal with the Pru directly if you are taking it as a TFLS when you take your main DB. I think the only thing they recommended was to stop making AVC payments one or two months before the selected retirement date.

By the way, Decembers payments arrived at my account, only Jan's is missing now for me.

OldBeanz

bioboybill said:

They are great at admitting that you have been treated unfairly and promising to put it right urgently, but then they do nothing. It’s all about fobbing you off in my experience and that of many others. Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to contact you or your wife in 5 days, Old Beanz.

We didn't zs we reported them last night . The automated response to my complaint in December stated that they considered the matter private/confidential and by not responding in anyway or any of their staff mentioning the complaint when I have brought the matter up in subsequent discussions appear to have lost the information. Losing such information is not too clever. We are letting the FOS sort this out which includes asking the Pru to report themselves to the appropriate authorities for losing confidential information. A £500k fine should help them focus.

bioboybill

jamjar92 said:

@bioboybill are these LGPS AVC retirees? On a LGPS pre-retirement seminar a few days ago they said you tell the LGPS your retirement date, and they deal with the Pru directly if you are taking it as a TFLS when you take your main DB. I think the only thing they recommended was to stop making AVC payments one or two months before the selected retirement date.

By the way, Decembers payments arrived at my account, only Jan's is missing now for me.

The one at work is, but others I’ve read about aren’t. Yes, Silvertabby on here used to administer LGPS I believe and suggested stopping payments a month or two early was a good idea. I only got my November payment showing yesterday. Still missing December and January.

Nebulous2

I’m not sure I wanted to hear this. I’m only going to be paying for the last two months of my employment. I’ve came to AVCs very late, decided to reduce my tax bill and signed up before Christmas to pay £1500 a month. I expected it to start in January, but they sent me a letter saying it would start in Feb. I had expected to work longer, possibly another year. 

Ive now decided to stop, have handed in my notice and will be leaving 31/3/22. At most I’m going to have two months in it, so I’ve created a headache for others to resolve. 

AlanP_2

Nebulous2 said:

I’m not sure I wanted to hear this. I’m only going to be paying for the last two months of my employment. I’ve came to AVCs very late, decided to reduce my tax bill and signed up before Christmas to pay £1500 a month. I expected it to start in January, but they sent me a letter saying it would start in Feb. I had expected to work longer, possibly another year. 

Ive now decided to stop, have handed in my notice and will be leaving 31/3/22. At most I’m going to have two months in it, so I’ve created a headache for others to resolve. 

Do you mean 31/3/21??

Nebulous2

AlanP_2 said:

Nebulous2 said:

I’m not sure I wanted to hear this. I’m only going to be paying for the last two months of my employment. I’ve came to AVCs very late, decided to reduce my tax bill and signed up before Christmas to pay £1500 a month. I expected it to start in January, but they sent me a letter saying it would start in Feb. I had expected to work longer, possibly another year. 

Ive now decided to stop, have handed in my notice and will be leaving 31/3/22. At most I’m going to have two months in it, so I’ve created a headache for others to resolve. 

Do you mean 31/3/21??

Apologies - yes. I had relatively vague plans to retire, sometime between September 21 and March 22, by which point I would be 60. I thought I’d put some money into a cash fund in the AVC, as I don’t have a lump sum at all with my LGPS. I could then take it all out in cash.

I saw a part-time job I fancied however, with a fixed contract until end of March 22 and decided just to go now. 

bioboybill

Got a further letter from the Pru today. All it said was apologies that we haven’t been able to finish investigating your complaint within 4 weeks. We will write to you again in another 4 weeks, but we may need to tell you we need more time at that point. That’s strange since I have been promised on at least 3 occasions that it was being put right urgently and I should expect a call very soon. There is no investigation to be done. It’s all delaying 💩.