Problem with LGPS AVCs with Prudential

OldBeanz

That is likely to be their "secure" email portal. I once typed in a reply address, wrong by one character, and it dumped the whole message to my insecure email.

bioboybill

Thanks, OldBeanz. It did indeed turn out to be legit. They reckon my payroll haven't sent the payments from December. My payroll dispute this of course. Meanwhile I'm £600 down.

collins74

I’ve not been able to use the online portal for my LGPS AVC since they migrated to their new system. They promised to investigate and come back with a solution but never have.  I sent a complaint in by recorded delivery last week to their address in Lancing.  I’ve not heard anything so will call this week to make sure they have got it.

To make matters worse we have just heard the local authority I work for are cancelling the administration arrangements through AVC Wise.  Although it will remain as a shared cost AVC, the Council will now administer the changes that have to be received from the Prudential meaning all members are forced to contact Prudential from now on.  This will likely result in a drop in performance because with AVC Wise changes were made immediately through their portal.

My wife has a Teachers AVC and asked the Prudential to reduce her contributions.  We did this on 10 Jan so it would be in place for her Feb pay but she has never received any confirmation.  She received her payslip for this month and the contributions have remained at the old level.  She is going to submit a complaint too.

Ringing them can be a lottery - sometimes the wait times are excessive and I have given up waiting to speak to someone.  Others times I’ve been cut off and if I am lucky they answer promptly.

All in all the service levels are a disgrace and quite concerning when many people in LGPS have a significant amount of their life savings in their pensions.  

Thrugelmir

collins74 said:

All in all the service levels are a disgrace and quite concerning when many people in LGPS have a significant amount of their life savings in their pensions.  

How long before people return to offices en masse and not WFH. Most likely will improve both productivity and efficiency. No more distractions. 

Farside71

Thrugelmir said:

collins74 said:

All in all the service levels are a disgrace and quite concerning when many people in LGPS have a significant amount of their life savings in their pensions.  

How long before people return to offices en masse and not WFH. Most likely will improve both productivity and efficiency. No more distractions. 

In this case most are.  Financial services has been classified as key workers so most of the Prudential outsourcer staff have been in the office for most of the pandemic other than the first lockdown.  And a lot of the work is done offshore. 

bioboybill

Still zilch for December (or January now) here. My complaint went in on January 21st, so should be getting by 4-weekly letter in another 4 days. No doubt they will put me off for another 4 weeks before I can complain to the FOS again. What a way to run a business.

bioboybill

Well finally got sorted yesterday and my AVCs are up to date. Watch this space for next month lol.

cloud_dog

I'm impressed how you all are managing to communicate with Pru.  I have a non-LGPS AVC scheme with them and they will only liaise with the scheme administrators (Capita).  A partial transfer out was completed over 3 months ago and still waiting for my account to get back up to speed (contributions etc).

bioboybill

cloud_dog said:

I'm impressed how you all are managing to communicate with Pru.  I have a non-LGPS AVC scheme with them and they will only liaise with the scheme administrators (Capita).  A partial transfer out was completed over 3 months ago and still waiting for my account to get back up to speed (contributions etc).

If you are able to access the mypru.co.uk website then you send messages through there. They hardly ever reply, but it gets made into a complaint if you make sure to say that's what it is. Then eventually you get a letter from them, followed by compensation if they deem it appropriate. Eventually it gets sorted, but you shouldn't have to go through the rigmarole. They should just address your problem and fix it, but they never do. If you look at Trustpilot you see so many negative reviews it's ridiculous. They have a social media team on there that pretends they will help, but they do nothing other than post on there and FB.

cloud_dog

bioboybill said:

cloud_dog said:

I'm impressed how you all are managing to communicate with Pru.  I have a non-LGPS AVC scheme with them and they will only liaise with the scheme administrators (Capita).  A partial transfer out was completed over 3 months ago and still waiting for my account to get back up to speed (contributions etc).

If you are able to access the mypru.co.uk website then you send messages through there. They hardly ever reply, but it gets made into a complaint if you make sure to say that's what it is. Then eventually you get a letter from them, followed by compensation if they deem it appropriate. Eventually it gets sorted, but you shouldn't have to go through the rigmarole. They should just address your problem and fix it, but they never do. If you look at Trustpilot you see so many negative reviews it's ridiculous. They have a social media team on there that pretends they will help, but they do nothing other than post on there and FB.

Yeah, I use the MyPru portal but usually they refuse to deal with me, advising me that they can only discuss things with the scheme administrators.  Ho hum.

After they messed up this time (third time in a row they have messed up a partial transfer out), I asked the administrators to raise a formal complaint.