pension firm stole my funds and wont respond

martin2020

hi,  I was auto enrolled a few years back into a pension scheme and then my employer changed to a different provider,  i asked the original provider to pay out to my new provider which they say they have, and the online portal says paid out, but its not transfered and my new provider has contacted them to confirm its not transferred but we are being ghosted now with now responses.   

I've written a  letter of complaint asking where the funds have gone but they wont answer and they have been giving me the run-around for months.

I've tried for days to contact the pensions ombudsman but they are offline due to a cyber attack so.

surly a pension company cannot do a runner with funds without repercussions, and the pension ombudsman is proving to be totally useless as they wont replay via email or answer the phone.

any advise greatly appreciated  

sammyjammy

When you say the pension ombudsman won't reply how long ago did you email them?  I am sure it takes time and you may need to be patient, also their website suggests you have to complete their complaint rather than just email them, have you done that?

Devongardener

You’d probably be better to contact the Pensions Regulator, rather than the Ombudsman because they were set up to protect workplace pensions https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/

martin2020

sammyjammy said:

When you say the pension ombudsman won't reply how long ago did you email them?  I am sure it takes time and you may need to be patient, also their website suggests you have to complete their complaint rather than just email them, have you done that?

its been a few weeks,  they asked me to download the online complaint form and email it back to them which ive done,   i get that they have had a cyber attack which has taken down there online services,  it diesnt account for not answering the phone at all

HappyHarry

martin2020 said:

hi,  I was auto enrolled a few years back into a pension scheme and then my employer changed to a different provider,  i asked the original provider to pay out to my new provider which they say they have, and the online portal says paid out, but its not transfered and my new provider has contacted them to confirm its not transferred but we are being ghosted now with now responses.   

I've written a  letter of complaint asking where the funds have gone but they wont answer and they have been giving me the run-around for months.

I've tried for days to contact the pensions ombudsman but they are offline due to a cyber attack so.

surly a pension company cannot do a runner with funds without repercussions, and the pension ombudsman is proving to be totally useless as they wont replay via email or answer the phone.

any advise greatly appreciated  

Take a step back and breathe.  Of course your old provider has not "done a runner" with your funds, they are still somewhere, they just need to be found and transferred to your new provider.

You should have completed a transfer request with your new provider. It is their job to complete the transfer and chase your old provider for the funds. Your job is to chase your new provider to get the transfer complete.  Chasing your old provider is unnecessary and may cause further confusion and delays.

gm0

You move your pension by "pulling" it to a new provider - like an ISA which sounds like it is what you did here.  Rather than the scheme moving as a whole.  How that works is a bit different.  And it can take months before IT and web content catches up with a scheme admin transfer behind the scenes.  Processes to avoid losing the money are usually (more) solid.  Communications and visibility into that are often utterly woeful.

For individual pull moves - generally the only reason to talk to the old provider is if the PULL transfer is blocked. Which if they have identified you correctly at the right "old provider" scheme - it can be blocked in some *very limited* circumstances. OId provider needs to follow the law and FCA regulations. Impose whatever pre-transfer advice condition is applicable. Evidence of financial advice is (roughly) only needed where there are legacy rights beyond a simple Defined Contribution pot - so basically all Defined Benefit transfers and the few Defined Contribution pots with special things attached like Guaranteed Annuity rates and such like.  There is some other stuff about "high risk" destinations and additional checking for those transfers as well - which people can fall foul of if going somewhere non-mainstream.  If these apply they tell new provider no.  And don't do it.  And stop.  You figure it out, meet the risk management requirement and try again.

New provider should have

a) either had the money via a cash transfer or

b) been blocked with a rejection/reason as to why it can't be done - which you need to find out - from the new provider - so get them to chase it up.  Very few pension admin outfits have that info online or flowing around IT. 
Or available outside the transfer team.  So it can take a while to get it.  Talk to customer service - ask very focused questions. When was transfer submitted. Origo or not.  Who to (exactly).  Has any response been received yes/no.  When ? What was it - rejection reason ?

If it was ORIGO the electronic system at both ends it should have been quick - couple of weeks end to end - even allowing for selling funds to cash, BACS transfer etc. If all paper based - a lot slower and people can pick the wrong destination to send correspondence.  Errors happen.

Validate the destination new provider tells you was correct with old provider - if anything seems off.  
Radio silence is easily explained if you are on paper and a letter needed in Croydon is sat in a pile awaiting redirection in Aberdeen.  The new provider is waiting for an answer (that may eventually come or not but much later), and the actual old provider admin team doesn't know about the transfer because there is a letter sat in an office which doesn't handle that scheme - waiting matching, solving and redirection or a reply to say "not us". But misdirected transactions are not in anyone's top 100 priorities for urgency.

While it should not be your issue to glue this together - only you are in a hurry -  so there it is.

If you have a complaint to make. You will have to make it to the provider at fault.  The one doing the pull in the first instance.   The time limit for transfers to be completed that is allowed is a long limit. 
Paper processes and snail mail letters still exist for some old, small, closed schemes.  Not everyone is on the electronic ORIGO system.  So months not days is still allowed. Before the regulator is bothered.

Then there is the mandatory up to 8 week response time on your formal complaint BEFORE you can go to the ombudsman. If you haven't done that formally - they will eventually remind you that you need to go through provider complaints first.  And send you on your way to start queuing again.  People love that.  

FCA, TPR and PAS and such like don't do consumer complaint remedies so sending them snottograms is a waste of time well into "old man shouts at cloud" territory.

Go and use the provider complaint system first.  Until this is resolved, expired, rejected with deadlock letter etc.

Also take a deep breath recognising the pace this world moves at. It would be a good way to avoid unnecessary stress and impotent rage.  It isn't gonna hurry up just for you.

Marcon

martin2020 said:

hi,  I was auto enrolled a few years back into a pension scheme and then my employer changed to a different provider,  i asked the original provider to pay out to my new provider which they say they have, and the online portal says paid out, but its not transfered and my new provider has contacted them to confirm its not transferred but we are being ghosted now with now responses.   

I've written a  letter of complaint asking where the funds have gone but they wont answer and they have been giving me the run-around for months.

I've tried for days to contact the pensions ombudsman but they are offline due to a cyber attack so.

surly a pension company cannot do a runner with funds without repercussions, and the pension ombudsman is proving to be totally useless as they wont replay via email or answer the phone.

any advise greatly appreciated  

If these are both employer-sponsored auto enrolment schemes, have you told your employer what's going on?

Nobody has done a runner with your funds; a transfer has just been screwed up somewhere along the line and your money is perfectly safe - somewhere - so although your frustration and annoyance are understandable, don't let them grow into anything more than that.

ader42

I remember that when I transferred my pensions into a SIPP 16 years ago it took what seemed like forever to happen fully, was probably a couple of months.
I even forgot I’d set things in motion by the time I got the letter in the post to say it had been completed.

martin2020

in a rush? slow down?    i initiated the transfer of funds a year ago,  the online portal says benefits paid out, i forgot about it until recently and the old provider wont / cannot say where the funds are despite numerous emails.   Yes ive complained formally to them and did not get a response.  everything is electronic and online,  no ones using pen and paper for this crap and walking down to the post office with a letter so i dont accept any of that for delays, plus like said its been over a year and they wont actually or cannot give me an answer to where funds have gone to, because they cirtainly have not gone to the new provider.

xylophone

Who was the old and who is the new provider?

martin2020

xylophone said:

Who was the old and who is the new provider?

old provider is creative pension trust and new one is smart pension trust -   twice now the guys at smart have reached out to creative and got no response