Problem with LGPS AVCs with Prudential

OldBeanz

Yes. There is a fundamental problem when we change contributions. Thankfully only one change of amount required before the wife retires.
Taken more than £900 off them (5 or 6 payments) in the last year and they have still not worked out what is going on. The Pension Ombudsman became involved in a live problem as the Pru were about to fail to change the amount as required this month. The wife knows her tax liability half way through the tax year and the Pru cannot understand that if they fail to make the change then the amount due from the following month is going to change to ensure the wife contributes enough to pay no tax. They advise making changes online but do not check that the details that they send to the payroll provider have been received  (snail mail from their new state of the art system) as it is possible to subsequently change the amount through your employer. It is this issue that the PO thinks should be more robust and is awaiting the Pru's response.
I think it is criminal that her Local Authority have given this set of charlatans a monopoly on providing AVCs.

bioboybill

I asked the Pru to increase my contribution 2 weeks ago and all I received was the standard automated email from them. As I know they failed to do anything at all after the last time I increased it I also emailed our payroll manager and asked him to increase it from end February's wages. At the moment I'd be happy if they could be arsed applying my December payment!

Yes, my local authority have been useless. Shame we have no choice.

OldBeanz

bioboybill said:

I asked the Pru to increase my contribution 2 weeks ago and all I received was the standard automated email from them. As I know they failed to do anything at all after the last time I increased it I also emailed our payroll manager and asked him to increase it from end February's wages. At the moment I'd be happy if they could be arsed applying my December payment!

Yes, my local authority have been useless. Shame we have no choice.

Fire in a complaint online. They normally don't respond then compensate you for not responding. Any other method is time consuming. 

bioboybill

I've spent the last year doing just that lol. They did respond this time, but only to say it's in the hands of a complaints manager. I have had £500 compensation twice now, but last time they said that receiving the money on the 1st of the month and applying it on the 19th was within a reasonable timeframe in their opinion and didn't uphold my claim. Bizarrely a colleague that made the same complaint got his complaint upheld and got £250 (but he hadn't complained before). They make it up as they go along.

bioboybill

Still no December payment in. I received a letter regarding my complaint to say they hoped to address it within 4 weeks, but if they don't I can go to the FOS after 8 weeks. I've already done that previously and it took 7 months to sort out!

OldBeanz

They have stated previously that any payments that weren't allocated would be backdated but the lack of drive to sort these issues out is so frustrating when they find it is easier to send a cheque to those who complain. Fix it Pru.

bioboybill

Yes, my friend made the same complaint the day after me and they just sent him a £100 cheque in the post with an apology. They still haven't fixed the issue for him. Not sure why mine had to be escalated differently.

bioboybill

Still sod all from the Pru. It's a shame that a once trusted company have gone down the pan. They've gone through a rebrand to M&G, but they still couldn't care less about customers. Their Trustpilot reviews are full of customers unable to get payouts or any sort of service from them. It seems the regulators let them do whatever they want and the local government pension schemes are taking no action to help the members.

OldBeanz

Kerching. Another £255, on top of the £1k already paid out, on its way.

bioboybill

They really are a shambles lol. Still nothing from December here and no replies to messages. I got a strange email this morning that looked legit purporting to be from Prudential and asking me to register to see an encrypted message from them. I still didn't fancy clicking the link, so I immediately screen shotted the email and messaged them through their portal to ask if it was legit, and if so why not just message me on there. No reply so far. I think they still have so many people working from home without access to all their systems. Hence the awful CS.