MyCSP - missing years/transfer out - could it be fraud?

Milomix

Bit of long story but I have a classic and alpha pension, and subject to the McCloud judgement, so my pension statements are pretty complicated have changed a lot. As I’m in my early 50s I’ve started to pay a bit more attention and questioned why my pension is so low.

The answer has turned out to be quite simple, the first 16 years of reckonable service are missing!

I messaged MyCSP, nothing yet. So, I called them. Line awful and could barely hear them but they said my records show my benefits up to 2009 were transferred out. Obviously not something I did. But they also said it coincided with a MOG move of departments, so ‘HR probably just ticked the wrong box’.

It seems pretty wild to me that this could have happened, 16 years of pension gone with no checks or balances to stop someone ‘ticking the wrong box’. Hopefully easy to fix but has anyone come across something like this before?

My underlying worry is that somehow someone else had done this and the benefits have been transferred. But I can’t imagine how, they would need to have intercepted a lot of post and known my NI number (I think). So surely not possible?

Marcon

Milomix said:

Bit of long story but I have a classic and alpha pension, and subject to the McCloud judgement, so my pension statements are pretty complicated have changed a lot. As I’m in my early 50s I’ve started to pay a bit more attention and questioned why my pension is so low.

The answer has turned out to be quite simple, the first 16 years of reckonable service are missing!

I messaged MyCSP, nothing yet. So, I called them. Line awful and could barely hear them but they said my records show my benefits up to 2009 were transferred out. Obviously not something I did. But they also said it coincided with a MOG move of departments, so ‘HR probably just ticked the wrong box’.

It seems pretty wild to me that this could have happened, 16 years of pension gone with no checks or balances to stop someone ‘ticking the wrong box’. Hopefully easy to fix but has anyone come across something like this before?

My underlying worry is that somehow someone else had done this and the benefits have been transferred. But I can’t imagine how, they would need to have intercepted a lot of post and known my NI number (I think). So surely not possible?

Correct - not possible for someone to nick your benefits by transferring them to a pension scheme belonging to someone else. If incompetence by a third party (HR or scheme administrator) has occasioned 'actual financial loss' to you for whatever reason, they will have to make good that loss.

But - transferred to where? They should have a record and be able to tell you the destination. Try that, and come back here if you don't get a satisfactory answer. 

Silvertabby

Do you have any colleagues with a similar service history to you?  Have they checked their records recently?

The reason I ask is that certain jobs could and did switch from the PSCPS to the LGPS (or the other way) resulting in bulk transfers of pension benefits.  If this is not the answer, then don't just accept MyCSP's 'explanation'.  This needs sorting before you can even think of retiring.  

Milomix

Marcon said:

Milomix said:

Bit of long story but I have a classic and alpha pension, and subject to the McCloud judgement, so my pension statements are pretty complicated have changed a lot. As I’m in my early 50s I’ve started to pay a bit more attention and questioned why my pension is so low.

The answer has turned out to be quite simple, the first 16 years of reckonable service are missing!

I messaged MyCSP, nothing yet. So, I called them. Line awful and could barely hear them but they said my records show my benefits up to 2009 were transferred out. Obviously not something I did. But they also said it coincided with a MOG move of departments, so ‘HR probably just ticked the wrong box’.

It seems pretty wild to me that this could have happened, 16 years of pension gone with no checks or balances to stop someone ‘ticking the wrong box’. Hopefully easy to fix but has anyone come across something like this before?

My underlying worry is that somehow someone else had done this and the benefits have been transferred. But I can’t imagine how, they would need to have intercepted a lot of post and known my NI number (I think). So surely not possible?

Correct - not possible for someone to nick your benefits by transferring them to a pension scheme belonging to someone else. If incompetence by a third party (HR or scheme administrator) has occasioned 'actual financial loss' to you for whatever reason, they will have to make good that loss.

But - transferred to where? They should have a record and be able to tell you the destination. Try that, and come back here if you don't get a satisfactory answer. 

That's reassuring. Thank you. I can live with some incompetence and it all gets sorted. Slightly annoying and I'm still trying to get my head around how someone in HR ticking the wrong box could be quite so catastrophic

Milomix

Silvertabby said:

Do you have any colleagues with a similar service history to you?  Have they checked their records recently?

The reason I ask is that certain jobs could and did switch from the PSCPS to the LGPS (or the other way) resulting in bulk transfers of pension benefits.  If this is not the answer, then don't just accept MyCSP's 'explanation'.  This needs sorting before you can even think of retiring.  

 Thanks for the reply. It's central government, and having done a (tiny) bit of homework, was just an internal (to the civil service) employer switch triggered by a machinery of government change. Fortunately, because buy pension was so bad, no plans to retire just yet. May re-evaluate if I get those 16 years back. 

Ayr_Rage

Suggest you remove the word FRAUD from the topic title.

Milomix

Ayr_Rage said:

Suggest you remove the word FRAUD from the topic title.

I can do, wasn't sure why though (genuine question)?

Marcon

Milomix said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Suggest you remove the word FRAUD from the topic title.

I can do, wasn't sure why though (genuine question)?

No need to do so - anyone reading it could grasp what you meant. Anyway, the title would look pretty silly if you do:

MyCSP - missing years/transfer out - could it be

QrizB

Marcon said:

Milomix said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Suggest you remove the word FRAUD from the topic title.

I can do, wasn't sure why though (genuine question)?

No need to do so - anyone reading it could grasp what you meant. Anyway, the title would look pretty silly if you do:

MyCSP - missing years/transfer out - could it be

Although it would look less silly as:

MyCSP - missing years/transfer out

Marcon

QrizB said:

Marcon said:

Milomix said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Suggest you remove the word FRAUD from the topic title.

I can do, wasn't sure why though (genuine question)?

No need to do so - anyone reading it could grasp what you meant. Anyway, the title would look pretty silly if you do:

MyCSP - missing years/transfer out - could it be

Although it would look less silly as:

MyCSP - missing years/transfer out

But that wouldn't convey what OP was asking/worried about. The original title does the job nicely, so hard to understand why anyone is bothered about it.

hugheskevi

Just to reassure you further, it is common for things like this to happen when Civil Servants change employer within the scheme. It is distressing for individuals encountering it for the first time with their own pension, but commonplace for those dealing with it, and has been that way for years. 

The tradition has been for these sort of things to be picked up at retirement when records are scrutinised in detail, but it is better if individuals can keep an eye on their member record (checking information in payslips, P60, ABS, and the pension portal is all as expected) and correct mistakes as they happen (but few do).