When can pension companies start to issue transitional tax-free amount certificates?

Objeron

Six weeks ago, I applied for a transitional tax-free amount certificate (TTFA) and got no response from my pension company. (I know they have 3 months to comply but that’s the time until they are supposed to start getting fined taking too long, and I need to start taking drawdown from another fund soon.)

When I formally complained to them, they made a number of excuses for not responding but the main one was that their Technical Department had “advised that this part of the Legislation has still to be finalised and at such we are not yet in a position to provide the certificate.”

I can imagine that for some people in complex situations the legislation may be unclear, but I think my situation is very simple. I have had a total of 1 BCE (setting up an annuity), which was with them, and I took no tax-free cash.

Are they right is saying that the Legislation has still to be finalised and that they can’t issue any certificates until it is? 

dunstonh

When I formally complained to them, they made a number of excuses for not responding but the main one was that their Technical Department had “advised that this part of the Legislation has still to be finalised and at such we are not yet in a position to provide the certificate.”

I haven't tried many providers but have several applied for and this is the common outcome.   They have to give it within 90 days and waiting for as long as they can seems common out of fear of messing it up.

Are they right is saying that the Legislation has still to be finalised and that they can’t issue any certificates until it is? 

Yes and no. Yes, there are still some bits that are not resolved, and that can impact the certificate. However, if you are not subject to those areas, then there is nothing to say that they cannot do it. However, it's fair to say that there is a lot of nervousness among the providers as they haven't had time for their legal teams, compliance teams, stationery, etc., to get these in place. Many are using hastily drawn-up Word document templates.   HMRC have also stated that there will be some retrospective changes but left some vagueness in place.

FIREDreamer

Hargreaves supplied me with one within a week. They noticed they had messed it up and provided a replacement within a further week.

Objeron

Thanks for the responses  

I actually asked HMRC basically the same question at the weekend, not expecting a response for a few weeks. However I have received the following repose from them in the last a few minutes. It does not directly answer the question I asked, but it may be of help to some others. 

Where a member requires a payment which is affected by the further regulations and cannot wait until these are introduced due to financial hardship, you can contact HMRC directly at - ltaadministration@hmrc.gov.uk - and put ‘LTA further regulations — impacted member’ in the subject line.

My reading of all of this is that for simple cases the provider should be able to issue a certificate, and dunstonh and FIREDreamer's responses indicate some are, even if only through manual processes. For complex cases some providers may be delaying until they have updated guidance from HMRC. It's not clear to me what regulations are still to be finalised by HMRC but their response to my mail seems to indicate they are aware of problems.  

FIREDreamer

Objeron said:

Thanks for the responses  

I actually asked HMRC basically the same question at the weekend, not expecting a response for a few weeks. However I have received the following repose from them in the last a few minutes. It does not directly answer the question I asked, but it may be of help to some others. 

Where a member requires a payment which is affected by the further regulations and cannot wait until these are introduced due to financial hardship, you can contact HMRC directly at - ltaadministration@hmrc.gov.uk - and put ‘LTA further regulations — impacted member’ in the subject line.

My reading of all of this is that for simple cases the provider should be able to issue a certificate, and dunstonh and FIREDreamer's responses indicate some are, even if only through manual processes. For complex cases some providers may be delaying until they have updated guidance from HMRC. It's not clear to me what regulations are still to be finalised by HMRC but their response to my mail seems to indicate they are aware of problems.  

I think its something to do with individual or fixed protections . These dont apply to me. With no certificate i had no PCLS left (apart from 2 out of 3 small pots, 1 already used using the Hargreaves Method, nudge nudge wink wink). Now I have about £25k available, most of which is earmarked by uncrystallised funds of about £65k (25% is £16,250). 

Very grateful to Jeremy Hunt obviously, a nice bonus to start retirement instead of having to pay an LTA charge of £16,250 prior to abolition.