NEST Pension being illegally witheld

Reynoldsann

Is anyone experiencing problems getting their NEST pension paid?
I applied to take mine as a lump sum, provided the necessary ID and received a letter on 3rd Oct 23 to say they submitted the payment on 3rd Oct and it should reach me within 5 working days. Its now 17th Oct and I still haven't had it. I have called them, written, raised a complaint and have been fobbed off time and again. They have been telling me for 5 days they are fast tracking my payment, but are unable to say when I'll get it. I feel frustrated, victimised, lied to and at a loss as to know what to do next. Any ideas please? 

Albermarle

Reynoldsann said:

Is anyone experiencing problems getting their NEST pension paid?
I applied to take mine as a lump sum, provided the necessary ID and received a letter on 3rd Oct 23 to say they submitted the payment on 3rd Oct and it should reach me within 5 working days. Its now 17th Oct and I still haven't had it. I have called them, written, raised a complaint and have been fobbed off time and again. They have been telling me for 5 days they are fast tracking my payment, but are unable to say when I'll get it. I feel frustrated, victimised, lied to and at a loss as to know what to do next. Any ideas please? 

Yes be patient and keep chasing them.
Also probably not wise to get too stressed about a payment that is only just over a week late and be bandying around accusations of illegality, when it is clearly just some sort of admin issue.

dunstonh

I applied to take mine as a lump sum, provided the necessary ID and received a letter on 3rd Oct 23 to say they submitted the payment on 3rd Oct and it should reach me within 5 working days. Its now 17th Oct and I still haven't had it. I have called them, written, raised a complaint and have been fobbed off time and again. They have been telling me for 5 days they are fast tracking my payment, but are unable to say when I'll get it. I feel frustrated, victimised, lied to and at a loss as to know what to do next. Any ideas please? 

Nothing illegal in what you have written there.  So, best to stop referring to it as such.

You are only a week late and it's almost certainly an administration issue.    Often with auto-enrolment schemes the failure to release funds is because the final payroll payment from the employer hasn't been made yet or the employer hasn't told NEST that you are no longer an employee.     In those scenarios, the front line staff may not know that is the problem when talking to them and it only raises its head when it fails.   So, is this scheme linked to an employer that you have only recently retired from or an old one?

Alternatively, its possible that you are misreading the timescale or they are being rather optimistic.    For example, if accessing the 75% chunk, they need to sell your pension funds to cash (that takes about 2-3 days), then they have to send the money via payroll.  That usually takes several days.  Then it goes via BACs which can take another 3 days with a major bank or upto 5 working days with some building societies or payment services.

You have raised a complaint with them and wait and see what they say.  Be patient.

Marcon

Reynoldsann said:

Is anyone experiencing problems getting their NEST pension paid?
I applied to take mine as a lump sum, provided the necessary ID and received a letter on 3rd Oct 23 to say they submitted the payment on 3rd Oct and it should reach me within 5 working days. It's now 17th Oct and I still haven't had it. I have called them, written, raised a complaint and have been fobbed off time and again. They have been telling me for 5 days they are fast tracking my payment, but are unable to say when I'll get it. I feel frustrated, victimised, lied to and at a loss as to know what to do next. Any ideas please? 

Massive overreaction. Calm down and stop getting so wound up about something which will almost certainly be resolved in the next week or so. Your money is perfectly safe (so nothing to worry about there) and letting yourself get so upset isn't good for you and won't speed up the payment.

born_again

Daughter has massive issues with them transferring her pension with them to her new employer. Well over 6 months now & all they wanted has been sent, but they did not say at the outset what was required, just kept asking for more info.
Now she finds her account is closed, but funds not been transferred to new pension fund & no contact from them advising what is going on.

LHW99

born_again said:

Daughter has massive issues with them transferring her pension with them to her new employer. Well over 6 months now & all they wanted has been sent, but they did not say at the outset what was required, just kept asking for more info.
Now she finds her account is closed, but funds not been transferred to new pension fund & no contact from them advising what is going on.

Not uncommon. As I understand the sending Co has to collect its paperwork and sell the holdings before they get sent over. This actually seems to take place by cheque in some cases I have read here. If its gone from the old, its likely to appear in the new in a week or so. She just needs to keep checking, and asking if she doesn't hear by perhaps end October. Things can take quite a while, but even if a reference does go astray, it will be corrected in due course.

dunstonh

Daughter has massive issues with them transferring her pension with them to her new employer. Well over 6 months now & all they wanted has been sent, but they did not say at the outset what was required, just kept asking for more info.

New rules were introduced a year ago regarding transfers to reduce fraud.    The auto-enrolment schemes are generally playing it harder than the retail pension schemes.       The anti-fraud measures do often see repeat requests for further information as its based on the information given in at the earlier stages.

Personally, i am not finding transfers out of NEST any worse or better than other auto-enrolment schemes.   

Now she finds her account is closed, but funds not been transferred to new pension fund & no contact from them advising what is going on.

There is a small window of a few days to a week where the funds will be in transit. Many providers still use cheques and paper.    Most auto-enrolment/employer schemes do not use the Origo transfer system (the computer based scheme).  

xylophone

received a letter on 3rd Oct 23 to say they submitted the payment on 3rd Oct and it should reach me within 5 working days. 

Hm... is should the weasel word here? What should happen and what does happen can be two different things.

I doubt that there's any illegality involved, rather an administrative delay.

I assume that you have checked that bank account details you provided were full and correct?

Stubod

...click bate title, typical newbie over reaction...

dunstonh

Hm... is should the weasel word here? What should happen and what does happen can be two different things.

Back in my young days when I was taught to write letters, we were told about the importance of using "could", "should" and "would" correctly.      We were also told that most people would see could in the letter but turn it into would in their recollection.

Albermarle

dunstonh said:

Hm... is should the weasel word here? What should happen and what does happen can be two different things.

Back in my young days when I was taught to write letters, we were told about the importance of using "could", "should" and "would" correctly.      We were also told that most people would see COULD in the letter but turn it into would in their recollection.

Maybe it needs highlighting !