Delay with pension lump sum payment

lindos90

Roger175 said:

lindos90

You have my sympathies, this is outrageous! 

I know you won't want to hear this, but my wife stopped work last year and formally retired a few weeks ago aged 60. She had two DB pensions, one from our Local Authority (teaching assistant) and one from he former work-life with Barclays (administered by the dreaded WTW). In both cases she opted to take the lump sum and, based on tales we've heard here and elsewhere, we fully expected these to take months to arrive. Imagine our surprise when they were both paid into her account on her 60th birthday - as it should be of course, but we were not expecting it to actually happen.

I can only imagine your frustration with this and the added kick in the teeth, that the complaints process appears to be having no effect. Best wishes and I hope it gets resolved very soon.

Thankyou Roger175, and happy retirement to you both, don't spend it all at once! 😂

lindos90

Pat38493 said:

Would there eventually be some kind of legal recourse if a pension just refused to pay out for months or years?  Surely there is some kind of legal duty on the trustees to fulfill member's benefits within a reasonable time frame?

As it's the teachers pension it's a government based pension, so there are no trustees. Apparently the next step after this, if we are not happy with their response is making a complaint to the department of Education. (It will go in with all the other general complaints regarding schools and education) Then if we are not happy with that response we can then take it to the pension ombudsman, who's decision is final. All of that is going to take months 🤦‍♀️.
The government have given the contract to Capita to administer the teacher pensions, as with other contracts they have been given by the government, they seem to be making a real mess!

lindos90

xylophone said:

Apparently our complaint is so complex (is it though?)

Good grief!  How complex is "my pension commencement lump sum of £xxxx which was due payable on 1/9/23 has not yet been received"?

Utterly shocking service.

Exactly! They have the amount calculated, they know it is owed to him, all they need to do is press a button and send it to his bank account! (Hopefully followed up by an amount to cover the lost interest, which is a significant figure at this point!)

cloud_dog

Is the pension in payment equivalent to the quoted annual pension, e.g. it is not more?

I'm wondering if someone didn't get the memo about the PCLS, and now they are running around trying to figure out how to fix it.

lindos90

cloud_dog said:

Is the pension in payment equivalent to the quoted annual pension, e.g. it is not more?

I'm wondering if someone didn't get the memo about the PCLS, and now they are running around trying to figure out how to fix it.

Sorry @cloud_dog I don't understand your first sentence 🤦‍♀️.

To answer your second point, the first time OH called about the absent lump sum he was told that the monthly payment was authorised, but the lump sum wasn't, there are no queries on file that would hold it up, they should simply have authorised both at the same time. The way they can fix it is to do the authorisation now, which they seem incapable of doing. Maybe the system is the problem and the "computer says no" but they don't seem to be in any hurry to rectify it.

xylophone

I don't understand your first sentence

https://neu.org.uk/advice/your-rights-work/pensions/teachers-pension-scheme/tps-final-salary-section#:~:text=You also get an automatic,22,500 tax-free lump sum.

Wondering whether there has been an error giving you no commutation but a higher annual pension?

But I think you said the calculations of pension/PCLS were checked and as expected?

cloud_dog

lindos90 said:

cloud_dog said:

Is the pension in payment equivalent to the quoted annual pension, e.g. it is not more?

I'm wondering if someone didn't get the memo about the PCLS, and now they are running around trying to figure out how to fix it.

Sorry @cloud_dog I don't understand your first sentence 🤦‍♀️.

To answer your second point, the first time OH called about the absent lump sum he was told that the monthly payment was authorised, but the lump sum wasn't, there are no queries on file that would hold it up, they should simply have authorised both at the same time. The way they can fix it is to do the authorisation now, which they seem incapable of doing. Maybe the system is the problem and the "computer says no" but they don't seem to be in any hurry to rectify it.

As per @xylophone post.  Just wondering if there had been a fubar and they are paying out the full pension and no commutation / PCLS? 

lindos90

xylophone said:

I don't understand your first sentence

https://neu.org.uk/advice/your-rights-work/pensions/teachers-pension-scheme/tps-final-salary-section#:~:text=You also get an automatic,22,500 tax-free lump sum.

Wondering whether there has been an error giving you no commutation but a higher annual pension?

But I think you said the calculations of pension/PCLS were checked and as expected?

Ah sorry I understand what you are saying a bit more now. The monthly payment was the amount he was expecting, and that figure was given at the same time as the lump sum figure, so the lump sum was taken into account when they calculated the monthly pension. (Or at least I hope so!) The monthly payment is fairly low as he decided to take the maximum lump sum. If he is only getting the monthly pension and no lump sum we are going to struggle. He had worked out that initially the lump sum was going to create some interest to supplement the monthly payment.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

lindos90 said:

xylophone said:

I don't understand your first sentence

https://neu.org.uk/advice/your-rights-work/pensions/teachers-pension-scheme/tps-final-salary-section#:~:text=You also get an automatic,22,500 tax-free lump sum.

Wondering whether there has been an error giving you no commutation but a higher annual pension?

But I think you said the calculations of pension/PCLS were checked and as expected?

Ah sorry I understand what you are saying a bit more now. The monthly payment was the amount he was expecting, and that figure was given at the same time as the lump sum figure, so the lump sum was taken into account when they calculated the monthly pension. (Or at least I hope so!) The monthly payment is fairly low as he decided to take the maximum lump sum. If he is only getting the monthly pension and no lump sum we are going to struggle. He had worked out that initially the lump sum was going to create some interest to supplement the monthly payment.

Do you mean he took an extra one-off £12 TFLS in return for each £1 of annual TPS pension (that he would have received for the rest of his life) that he commutated?

Not a maths teacher hopefully 😉

xylophone

Not a maths teacher hopefully 

Is somewhat condescending?  The OP's husband can hardly be unaware of the commutation rate - presumably he was prepared to accept this together with the actuarial reduction for retiring early because of his and the OP's particular circumstances.

The OP made it clear that she and her husband have a  specific use for the lump sum in 2/3 years from now when they plan to move house.

In the meantime, the monthly interest on the lump sum (which was to be deposited in a 2 year fixed rate bond with a BS) would supplement their monthly income to the required amount. 

It may be that Capita's delay has cost them the opportunity of an advantageous interest rate as well as time, money and nervous energy.

The treatment the OP's husband has received from Capita seems to me to be utterly dire and an administrative disgrace.