Aegon Scottish Equitable -unable to get money out

AtABigLoss

Hello,

I am new here, and perhaps someone can help me or share their own similar experience.

I've been trying to take money out from my pension pot for months. I made an ill-health claim that was accepted in August 2024. Since then, it's been a succession of incorrect quotes, missing documents, "we-need-more-time" type of things, etc. In February 2025, Aegon received my formal drawdown request with all the correct details. Since then, "it's the final checks before payment". It is now June 2025.

Aegon do not reply emails or complaints. Very recently, Aegon changed my date of birth. It is more and more bizarre.

I need my money to seek medical treatment abroad. A while back I could still travel, with major difficulties, but possible. Now my health has deteriorated so much, that I probably won't be able to travel anymore. I had hopes I could be helped with chronic pain caused by a genetic illness. But this is more and more unlikely. 

Has anyone else had the same problem?

Thanks in advance for your constructive comments.

 
 

Albermarle

Can you clarify if this is a Defined Benefit pension ( with a guaranteed income ) or  Defined Contribution pension ( where there is just a pot of money)? It sounds like the latter but best to confirm if possible.
Also how old are you ?

Marcon

AtABigLoss said:

Hello,

I am new here, and perhaps someone can help me or share their own similar experience.

I've been trying to take money out from my pension pot for months. I made an ill-health claim that was accepted in August 2024. Since then, it's been a succession of incorrect quotes, missing documents, "we-need-more-time" type of things, etc. In February 2025, Aegon received my formal drawdown request with all the correct details. Since then, "it's the final checks before payment". It is now June 2025.

Aegon do not reply emails or complaints. Very recently, Aegon changed my date of birth. It is more and more bizarre.

I need my money to seek medical treatment abroad. A while back I could still travel, with major difficulties, but possible. Now my health has deteriorated so much, that I probably won't be able to travel anymore. I had hopes I could be helped with chronic pain caused by a genetic illness. But this is more and more unlikely. 

Has anyone else had the same problem?

Thanks in advance for your constructive comments.

 
 

Have you made a formal complaint using their complaints procedure? If not, do so now: https://www.aegon.co.uk/content/dam/auk/assets/publication/legal/our-complaints-procedure.pdf

 If you have, and they've not replied within 8 weeks, you can complain now to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Pensions Ombudsman. Given the backlogs they have, and the problem you have, I think this is one of those relatively rare instances where a complaint to the press might get you the urgent action you need, assuming that events have happened (or not happened) as you have outlined in your post.

AtABigLoss

Albermarle said:

Can you clarify if this is a Defined Benefit pension ( with a guaranteed income ) or  Defined Contribution pension ( where there is just a pot of money)? It sounds like the latter but best to confirm if possible.
Also how old are you ?

No, it is not defined in any way. I was 53 when I made my request.

AtABigLoss

Marcon said:

Have you made a formal complaint using their complaints procedure? If not, do so now:

 If you have, and they've not replied within 8 weeks, you can complain now to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Pensions Ombudsman. Given the backlogs they have, and the problem you have, I think this is one of those relatively rare instances where a complaint to the press might get you the urgent action you need, assuming that events have happened (or not happened) as you have outlined in your post.

Yes, I filed several complaints, but Aegon never replied beyond an acknowledgment.
Since then, I posted two 1-star reviews on TrustPilot. It has had an impact. My account now shows my pension pot is zero. I was told the bank transfer is being made, but I have not received anything.
I have also complained to the FOS, but that will take months. And I just got a reply from thisismoney.co.uk, so they may look at my story too.

Thanks to Albermarle and Marcon for their suggestions.

DRS1

AtABigLoss said:

Albermarle said:

Can you clarify if this is a Defined Benefit pension ( with a guaranteed income ) or  Defined Contribution pension ( where there is just a pot of money)? It sounds like the latter but best to confirm if possible.
Also how old are you ?

No, it is not defined in any way. I was 53 when I made my request.

53?  That may be your problem.  Are you actually entitled to anything from the pension before age 55?  You say you suffer from ill health which could allow you to claim earlier but the pension's rules would need to allow that and they would need evidence of the ill health.  Could that be what they are checking?  Getting a response from medical people is not always quick and easy.

Freddie16

I am very sorry for your struggles.  Aegon are dreadful. It's not a pension and nowhere as serious as your problem but I have been fighting with Aegon for 4 months to transfer out an ISA (it took me 6 months before that to get them to transfer an ISA in my late husband's name to my name). They deny receiving letters unless you send it recorded delivery. They claimed they didn't have a specimen signature of mine on file, and also claimed they had the wrong NI number.  Their systems are archaic and complaints dept not fit for purpose. Raise a complaint with Resolve service. Also Email CEO (google him and email address comes up) and copy in consumer journalist.  Best of luck

AtABigLoss

DRS1 said:

53?  That may be your problem.  Are you actually entitled to anything from the pension before age 55?  You say you suffer from ill health which could allow you to claim earlier but the pension's rules would need to allow that and they would need evidence of the ill health.  Could that be what they are checking?  Getting a response from medical people is not always quick and easy.

Hi, 
My ill health claim was accepted by Aegon in August 2024.
Since my last post, I've been in contact with the Money Section of the DailyMail. They sent an email to Aegon, and -surprise, surprise!- the money arrived 24hours later. However, my complaint is still being ignored. I indeed lost the use of my tax personal allowances.
Kind regards, 

AtABigLoss

Freddie16 said:

I am very sorry for your struggles.  Aegon are dreadful. It's not a pension and nowhere as serious as your problem but I have been fighting with Aegon for 4 months to transfer out an ISA (it took me 6 months before that to get them to transfer an ISA in my late husband's name to my name). They deny receiving letters unless you send it recorded delivery. They claimed they didn't have a specimen signature of mine on file, and also claimed they had the wrong NI number.  Their systems are archaic and complaints dept not fit for purpose. Raise a complaint with Resolve service. Also Email CEO (google him and email address comes up) and copy in consumer journalist.  Best of luck

Hi Freddie,

Many thanks for your compassion. I hope your problem will find a solution too. It is so hard to fight when we are vulnerable, due to grief or illness.

Yes, Aegon is just obstructive. And it destroys lives. There are now talks about reducing disability-related allowances paid by the DSS. Yet, some people who do have pension plans that they are entitled to have access to cannot get their own money that they've previously saved. It is quite paradoxical to blame ill/disabled people for their inability to be financially independent and at the same time prevent them to have access to their own money.

To all young people who think about their financial future (as they should do): DO NOT USE PENSION PROVIDERS if you can avoid it. They are expensive and non-flexible. Nowadays there are many ways to invest money via ETFs and access to financial information is very easy. People typically pay a 0.1% fee for a ETF with a brokerage firm versus 1% with companies like Aegon. And after 30 or 40 years, it makes a massive difference. With a brokerage firm, you have an enormous choice of ETFs whereas it is super limited with pension providers. When your money is with a brokerage firm, you can have access to it at any time versus being stuck to age 55 with a pension provider. Do not underestimate the probability of life accidents. More and more people fall severely ill at a younger age, and Social Security allowances are disappearing. Lives are no longer linear. Many people experience periods of hardship before regaining their footing, something that was almost unheard of before 
2008. Again, having money readily available makes a massive difference in a world where the Social Security safety net is disappearing. There might be tax advantages to pension plans (at least, for now!), but this needs to be carefully calculated and compared to the true costs of having a plan with a pension provider.

The discourse of having a future financial plan is amalgamated with the concept of using a pension provider. However, it is misleading because many people can do without and actually be better off. The whole pension sector is just overblown. It's like the leasehold industry. 

Juno_Moneta

“Very recently, Aegon changed my date of birth. It is more and more bizarre.”

As this is obviously the one thing about a person that can never be changed (there is no legal precedent for this) clearly it is simply a systemic change to facilitate / workaround restrictions in their admin / payment systems. 

But whilst early retirement pre minimum age due to a medical exception is an edge case vs the majority - modern pension systems should be able to cope with this so it might highlight inadequacies. 

I’d have hoped they would at least have written to you confirming the change and reasons for it - you shouldn’t have to be concerned. 

Marcon

AtABigLoss said:

DRS1 said:

53?  That may be your problem.  Are you actually entitled to anything from the pension before age 55?  You say you suffer from ill health which could allow you to claim earlier but the pension's rules would need to allow that and they would need evidence of the ill health.  Could that be what they are checking?  Getting a response from medical people is not always quick and easy.

Hi, 
My ill health claim was accepted by Aegon in August 2024.
Since my last post, I've been in contact with the Money Section of the DailyMail. They sent an email to Aegon, and -surprise, surprise!- the money arrived 24hours later. However, my complaint is still being ignored. I indeed lost the use of my tax personal allowances.
Kind regards, 

Normally it's possible to have a backdated pension payment treated as if it had actually been paid in the years to which it related, provided you had a right to it in the years in question. Your post suggests it became payable from August 2024 - has the payment you received been backdated to then? See https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim75020 and read the section headed 'Pensions paid in arrears'.

Usually you would need the scheme to give you a year by year breakdown and you'd then forward it to HMRC and ask for the appropriate adjustments to be made. In this case, fingers crossed you already have the necessary information, given that we are 'only' looking back 10 months/to the previous tax year, and HMRC should be able to act on that.

If your complaint is still being ignored, and has been for many weeks, then it probably is time to go to the Pensions Ombudsman with a complaint of maladministration, as suggested in my earlier post. If you aren't able to get HMRC to treat some of your drawdown as attributable to the 24/25 tax year, and you've had to pay extra tax as a result, then that should be (provisionally) flagged in your claim - I wouldn't hold off from putting in your complaint to the PO while you wait for HMRC. There's a backlog at the PO, so don't expect a quick reply - but at least by going to the press you've got the cash, which is the main thing.