Advice needed please

planespotter123

Hi my friend has a pension with The People's Pension and she is having major issues trying to withdraw the money. She is above pension age and they are doing everything they can to keep her money in. Would it be better transfering to a service like Pensionbee and then withdrawing? She needs it asap to pay her mortgage. Thanks

MallyGirl

Has she retired or is it still an active workplace pension?
What obstacles are they putting in her way?

Albermarle

Pension Bee is not a service. They are just another pension provider. I know they market themselves as being easy to transfer into, but it is just as easy to transfer pensions into any modern provider.

Regarding the problems she is having with the Peoples Pension, you need to flesh out the details some more.

dunstonh

Hi my friend has a pension with The People's Pension and she is having major issues trying to withdraw the money.

What are the issues?
The most common issue with auto-enrolment schemes is that the person is still showing as an active member of the employer it was linked to. (i.e. scheme is still active for receiving money and that will prevent transfers out or full withdrawals).

She is above pension age and they are doing everything they can to keep her money in.

No they are not.    They have no interest in creating additional work or blockers.     However, there will be an issue that is preventing it and that issue needs resolving.

 Would it be better transfering to a service like Pensionbee and then withdrawing?

That would be far more work than resolving the issue.  And if the issue is that it is still an active scheme, then the transfer wouldn't happen anyway.

What is the reason that PP are giving for being unable to complete the transaction?  
Is she still working for the same employer or has she left their employment?  if she has left, was it recent?

planespotter123

MallyGirl said:

Has she retired or is it still an active workplace pension?
What obstacles are they putting in her way?

She is retired and the pensions is no longer active (not being paid into by any party). They just keep telling her to read the booklet and that's if she can even get them to speak to her on the phone (there customer service is shocking). They have requested drivers license, passport, 12 months of bank statements along with other things, they were even asking for items for her partner even though he has nothing to do with the pension or the workplace she was with and it's not a joint bank account.

bjorn_toby_wilde

I don’t think requesting that level of detail is particularly unusual. 

I’m drawing from two DB schemes and neither of them required as much. Just a signature on a request form and a bank account number, but my wife’s NHS pension was a very different matter.

She had to supply both our birth certificates and our marriage certificate as well as filling in a four page form.

Is her partner named as a beneficiary? That might explain why they want those details.

I guess that at least you can take comfort from the fact that they are security conscious. There was a recent post on here where the OP’s pension had been paid to another person with the same name!

Sapientia

I hope your friend has had some luck with this. I think the administrators can feel their hands tied by quite narrow terms, but she should politely keep engaging. Sometimes a complaint is needed - just to allow a procedure of escalating the matter to someone who can help. Just ensure your friend's complaint is clearly drafted and describes the matter and individual nuances the company may not be aware of.