Pension provider say they have paid me too much

Tommyjw

Marcon said:

WanderingSal said:

Can anyone help.  I took early retirement at 60 and received a final salary pension. I was not well off, but just managing. Now, 4 years later they say their pension calculations were totally wrong and I owe them thousands. They want to reclaim a 7 figure sum from me, plus reduce my pension by well over £2,000 per annum.  If they had given me the correct information of course, I would not have retired so early and I would have left the pension untouched for longer.  Their new figures will reduce me to near destitution.  I am not convinced they have got their sums right now. But their initial wrong information has directly led to me taking financial decisions that will have serous impact on the rest of my life.  I cannot  get hold of anyone at citizens advice despite holding on the phone for hours.  I am suicidal. Can anyone help?

There are some unhelpful and not wholly accurate comments above which given your state of mind I suggest you ignore.

If you demonstrate that you took irreversible decisions based on incorrect information, you may be able to successfully argue something known as a 'change of position' defence. The best people to help are, as already suggested, MoneyHelper, who will have seen this situation many times before. Their help is free, impartial and based on knowledge rather than surmise. That said, the outcome will depend on the exact facts of the case, so it's impossible to predict what will happen - but please get in touch with them as soon as possible.

Change of position point just doesnt work in the real world as often as people in this forum seems to think it does, it's more unhelpful to claim its a real possibiltiy rather than face the fact the OP is going to have to pay it back.

Budget more, adjust your living situation, and as Dunstonh highlighted "go back to work", are all very common response from the Ombudsman if the change causes financial stress long before they ever consider a person not paying it back. I have only seen this prompt a person not to have pay it back once, and they were permanently disabled and unable to do any work whatsoever with no assets of their own such as house to downsize. There are endless examples on the Ombudsman website with all kinds of scenarios of a persons financial situation where they have still been told to pay it back.

Steve_666_

"There are endless examples on the Ombudsman website with all kinds of scenarios of a persons financial situation where they have still been told to pay it back"
and if you can show negligence by the pension provider?

Albermarle

Sadly, there is no compensation for that as you have no legal entitlement to money were not entitled to.  It works both ways, if they had been short, they would have to pay the extra.

I fully understand that these issues can work both ways, but I would have thought there would be a bit more natural justice  from the (Ombudsman?/company?) n a case like this. At least some willingness to meet half way when they have negatively affected someone's life with their mistake.

Nelliegrace

I hope you can get help with this @WanderingSal It is so very upsetting when things you counted on get changed suddenly. Keep a record of everything. Have you the calculations you used when you made the decision to retire? Don’t let the worry undermine your health.

Marcon

Tommyjw said:

Marcon said:

WanderingSal said:

Can anyone help.  I took early retirement at 60 and received a final salary pension. I was not well off, but just managing. Now, 4 years later they say their pension calculations were totally wrong and I owe them thousands. They want to reclaim a 7 figure sum from me, plus reduce my pension by well over £2,000 per annum.  If they had given me the correct information of course, I would not have retired so early and I would have left the pension untouched for longer.  Their new figures will reduce me to near destitution.  I am not convinced they have got their sums right now. But their initial wrong information has directly led to me taking financial decisions that will have serous impact on the rest of my life.  I cannot  get hold of anyone at citizens advice despite holding on the phone for hours.  I am suicidal. Can anyone help?

There are some unhelpful and not wholly accurate comments above which given your state of mind I suggest you ignore.

If you demonstrate that you took irreversible decisions based on incorrect information, you may be able to successfully argue something known as a 'change of position' defence. The best people to help are, as already suggested, MoneyHelper, who will have seen this situation many times before. Their help is free, impartial and based on knowledge rather than surmise. That said, the outcome will depend on the exact facts of the case, so it's impossible to predict what will happen - but please get in touch with them as soon as possible.

Change of position point just doesnt work in the real world as often as people in this forum seems to think it does, it's more unhelpful to claim its a real possibiltiy rather than face the fact the OP is going to have to pay it back.

Budget more, adjust your living situation, and as Dunstonh highlighted "go back to work", are all very common response from the Ombudsman if the change causes financial stress long before they ever consider a person not paying it back. I have only seen this prompt a person not to have pay it back once, and they were permanently disabled and unable to do any work whatsoever with no assets of their own such as house to downsize. There are endless examples on the Ombudsman website with all kinds of scenarios of a persons financial situation where they have still been told to pay it back.

Very occasionally it does, and I've overseen more than one case over the years where it has. 

I have been careful to point out in my response that the outcome depends on the exact facts. Remember that not all cases get to the Ombudsman - settlement can be made well before then and is therefore never reported as an Ombudsman's determination.

xylophone

Do contact MoneyHelper for assistance with putting your case.

If you are (and can show) that you are on a very tight budget, it seems to me that it would be quite legitimate to request time to repay at a rate that you can reasonably afford.

You are already in your 65th year so it will not be long before you can claim your state pension.

Have you obtained a state pension forecast?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

LunaLater

You say that you are suicidal, so please speak to someone about this. Your GP, or a charity, family or friends, but there is nothing going on that should lead you to,take your own life. Please put this first.

Now, as others have said, it is quite likely, if the new figures are right, that you will have to relay the overpayment, and accept the reduced pension, but you are not there yet, so will need to see their numbers, understand them, and work out if the old number was right, or the new number, or if it should be different.

If the worst is confirmed, and you are £2,500 per year worse off, then that’s 20 hours per month on minimum wage, or less if you are in a position to earn more. That’s not an onerous amount for a 64 year-old, and can be managed with less than five hours per week, so a supermarket job on a Saturday, or working for B&Q.

Of course you’d prefer not to do this, but you only have a few years until,you can get your state pension, so it’s a temporary fix.

Best of luck.