My pension lump sum was paid out but not to me

susssy

I have been looking into lost pensions and i remembered I had a private pension with a company called NEI Projects around  40 years ago.  When I looked them up on line it seems they have been since taken over by Rolls Royce.  I then remembered that I saw an entry on my personal tax summary some years ago showing as rolls Royce and at the time did not recognise this so I complained to the HMRC that i had never worked for that company and I received a letter of apology back and they seemed to indicater there was a mix up in NI numbers. I have now emailed Rolls Royce with my NI number to query this and the reply was that they contacted me and offered a lump sum and I accepted and this was paid to me on 01/11/2016.  I was never contacted and i have looked at my bank statements from that time and no funds were ever received.  I have now questioned this with them and they have confirmed to me that the funds were not paid to my bank which is barclays and this ids the only account i have ever had, they stated the funds went to a different bank but thwy wou;ld not disclose where.  i have asked for this to be investigated and they said they would send me an email asking for my ID documents but i probably would not receive it until next week as they are very busy however i feel this is a matter of urgency.  Has anyone had this happen or can give any advice on what i should do.

Marcon

susssy said:

I have been looking into lost pensions and i remembered I had a private pension with a company called NEI Projects around  40 years ago.  When I looked them up on line it seems they have been since taken over by Rolls Royce.  I then remembered that I saw an entry on my personal tax summary some years ago showing as rolls Royce and at the time did not recognise this so I complained to the HMRC that i had never worked for that company and I received a letter of apology back and they seemed to indicater there was a mix up in NI numbers. I have now emailed Rolls Royce with my NI number to query this and the reply was that they contacted me and offered a lump sum and I accepted and this was paid to me on 01/11/2016.  I was never contacted and i have looked at my bank statements from that time and no funds were ever received.  I have now questioned this with them and they have confirmed to me that the funds were not paid to my bank which is barclays and this ids the only account i have ever had, they stated the funds went to a different bank but thwy wou;ld not disclose where.  i have asked for this to be investigated and they said they would send me an email asking for my ID documents but i probably would not receive it until next week as they are very busy however i feel this is a matter of urgency.  Has anyone had this happen or can give any advice on what i should do.

I can understand why you want to 'get on with it', but the reality is that another week or so isn't likely to make any difference if the funds were paid out 8 years ago. 

Beware sending your ID documents (or copies) by email - ensure they are securely encrypted/password protected, ro send photocopies by 'signed for' delivery.

bluelad1927

I dont think waiting a week is unreasonable  for them to investigate what has happened.

If you hadn't looked them up online you would be none the wiser and wouldn't necessarily have been a matter of urgency

susssy

yes i am happy to wait the week I'm just anxious this has happened and wondered if this  happened to anyone else as i am  not sure what could have happened 

Marcon

susssy said:

yes i am happy to wait the week I'm just anxious this has happened and wondered if this  happened to anyone else as i am  not sure what could have happened 

Without knowing what's actually happened it's impossible to know if it's happened to anyone else.

If a payment is made without a scheme going through all the necessary checks (and almost by definition that must be the case if a member's benefits are paid to the wrong person), that will be the pension provider's problem, not the member's. They are still entitled to their benefits if these have not been paid to the correct person at the correct time.

In answer to your question as to what you do next, the answer is that you wait (sorry!) and then co-operate fully and promptly with any requests for information, ensuring that any information you send is secure and definitely sent to the right person at the correct address.

Jimmyjam81

Hi everyone this is my first ever post on this forum. I was interested when i saw this post because i am a shareholder in Rolls Royce, and their Annual General Meeting is at the end of this month.I mention this because if you like i am more than happy to ask a question for you about this to the board of Rolls Royce at the AGM if you want? As per the rules of the forum we are not allowed to give out any personal information so perhaps i can ask them a generalised question on your behalf? For example along the lines of "When you took over NEI Projects back in .... can you confirm that as a company you are undertaking all the necessary steps to reunite pension holders with their rightful contributions'?etc etc. The AGM is being held in Derby and i'm unlikely to attend it in person but as a shareholder i can always ask a question like electronically, and then give you feedback as to what answer the board give me if you are interested? Like i said this is my first ever post on this forum and it would be nice to do something that helps a fellow forum user. 

LHW99

Not suffered from this issue personally, but this article in Money Mail suggests that some people at Scottish Widows have suffered something similar

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-13392617/Scottish-Widows-gave-access-strangers-40-000-pension-pot.html

Albermarle

susssy said:

yes i am happy to wait the week I'm just anxious this has happened and wondered if this  happened to anyone else as i am  not sure what could have happened 

Just be aware that pension administrators often work at a very slow pace. With some even getting any kind of response in a month is an achievement.

susssy

I have had a response and it looks like my lump sum has been paid to another personwith same name and date of birth they ststed at that time they did not check national insurance numbers

MeteredOut

susssy said:

I have had a response and it looks like my lump sum has been paid to another personwith same name and date of birth they ststed at that time they did not check national insurance numbers

I hope you pointed out that that is their issue and asked when you'll get your lump sum?

Marcon

MeteredOut said:

susssy said:

I have had a response and it looks like my lump sum has been paid to another personwith same name and date of birth they ststed at that time they did not check national insurance numbers

I hope you pointed out that that is their issue and asked when you'll get your lump sum?

Indeed! Please update the thread in due course...it would be really good to know your money has landed where it should.