My late fathers pension provider is not paying out

heepdeep

Hello. I would like some advice, My pension provider is not paying out after my father's death. It's been 3 months and they keep saying that "they have all the documents" and someone needs to action it.

My mum only works part-time and is reliant on this pension to pay for outgoings.

Should i / can I complain about the delay?

heepdeep

I must state the provider is xps administration

xylophone

My pension provider is not paying out after my father's death.

You mean that your mother is entitled to a widow's pension from your late father's pension scheme and the Administrators (XPS) are tardy in making payments, despite the fact that they acknowledged receipt of all necessary documentation three months ago?

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-problems/complaining-about-delays-to-your-pension

heepdeep

xylophone said:

My pension provider is not paying out after my father's death.

You mean that your mother is entitled to a widow's pension from your late father's pension scheme and the Administrators (XPS) are tardy in making payments, despite the fact that they acknowledged receipt of all necessary documentation three months ago?

Exactly that. Not sure if 3 months is not enough time to warrant a complant

Tommyjw

This might sound backwords but what usually works is threatening to complain by a given timeframe, calling on Monday and saying e.g. if not sorted by Friday you'll call and make a official complaint, rather than straight away making an official complaint.

Usually within these DB pension firms from my experience a complaint is dealt with in the team itself so the teams manager, not a seperate complaints department for example, so it only adds to their teams workload if someone complaints and so if they are already behind on work it makes it worse. Paying something out is less time consuming than dealing with a complaint.

Complaining adds a complaint case they have to deal with, sure, but they have 8 weeks initially to respond and deal with your complaint so it doesnt really push them to do the case any quicker as the complaint has already been made. Threatening to complain at least gives them reason to prioritise you so they save time knowing they can avoid the workload when a complaint comes in.

Unfortunately many DB companies are struggling with staff & knowledge shortages and developing backlogs of work within the DB market but it is, understandably, incredibly common for them to at the very least prioritise death cases & immediate payment of retirement benefits (prioritise them over, say, providing retirement projections for someone for 3 years from now). So i am surprised this has taken that long. 

heepdeep

Thanks for that. I will do it. My dad had 2 other pensions with other companies and they all have concluded and paid out within a month.  But these are the only ones left and it's the biggest pot so it's the most important for us.

dunstonh

heepdeep said:

I must state the provider is xps administration

Question asked and answered.  My last dealing with XPS was pretty much the second worst dealing I have had with a pension administrator for over a decade.  It took them 6 months to complete a transfer that other providers or administrators can do in three days.

Marcon

Tommyjw said:

This might sound backwords but what usually works is threatening to complain by a given timeframe, calling on Monday and saying e.g. if not sorted by Friday you'll call and make a official complaint, rather than straight away making an official complaint.

Make it clear that if the matter isn't sorted by the given date, you'll be requiring a copy of the Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure. A formal complaint of that nature is even more unattractive than a mere 'complaint'.