Actually getting my pension!

Marcon

GDB2222 said:

It does sound like the process is glacially slow.

I'm no apologist for poor service standards, but I think it is hard to understand the complexities of administering a DB scheme unless you've tried it.

You are past NRA, so there will be a late retirement factor to include in the mix (and if that is 'under review' by the trustees of the scheme, the administrators are stuck until they get the new factor). If you have a Guaranteed Minimum Pension as part of your entitlement, the calcs for that are horrible in the extreme - and are likely to include manual (not just automated) computations to ensure 'equalisation' between men and women.

The list goes on...just be glad you aren't in one of the public sector schemes affected by the McCloud remedy, which has added a level of inscrutability which tops pretty everything else in terms of complexity. I know that's zero consolation, but I guess the message I'm trying to convey to those reading this thread is that planning ahead (and planning much further ahead than you thought necessary) might be no bad idea.

Albermarle

Marcon said:

GDB2222 said:

It does sound like the process is glacially slow.

I'm no apologist for poor service standards, but I think it is hard to understand the complexities of administering a DB scheme unless you've tried it.

You are past NRA, so there will be a late retirement factor to include in the mix (and if that is 'under review' by the trustees of the scheme, the administrators are stuck until they get the new factor). If you have a Guaranteed Minimum Pension as part of your entitlement, the calcs for that are horrible in the extreme - and are likely to include manual (not just automated) computations to ensure 'equalisation' between men and women.

The list goes on...just be glad you aren't in one of the public sector schemes affected by the McCloud remedy, which has added a level of inscrutability which tops pretty everything else in terms of complexity. I know that's zero consolation, but I guess the message I'm trying to convey to those reading this thread is that planning ahead (and planning much further ahead than you thought necessary) might be no bad idea.

I had a lot of delays with Mercer.
Although noting your comments above, it would have helped if they ever had responded  in any kind of reasonable timescale ( or at all).
Luckily I was able to make contact with my ex employer and the Trustees had to get involved to get things moving.
Even when the paperwork was eventually sorted, the first payment never arrived and they told me I would be paid in advance when it turned out to be in arrears .
So yes pensions are complicated, but the service from some of these big administrators is abysmal.