Is a Trustee allowed to stop paying a pension?

Marcon

p00hsticks said:

Marcon said:

p00hsticks said:

I'm following this with interest as I recently received a similar letter, dated only a week before my monthly pension payment was due and which arrived two days after the pension payment didn't hit my bank...

I understand why they do it but thought the timeframe was far too short - luckily I had funds that I could live on for the month and have received two months payment now that I have returned the form. 

A week wouldn't give the payroll team time to stop the payment. I wonder if you missed (or missed out on!) a previous letter? Was there a deadline for a reply, or any reference to 'previous requests'?

I'd raise the matter with the scheme and point out the issue - something  doesn't sound right at all.  

No, there was no indication in the letter that this was a reminder or follow up to any earlier communication - I have mailed the company to say that they acted far too quickly in stopping the pension and should have given me time to receive and reply to the letter., but I've not had a response as yet. 

Too right they should! If you'd be willing to share their explanation, that would be much appreciated. Do you know if any other members were similarly affected?

In any case, it's worth ensuring that the trustees know what has happened here. As a member you have every right to contact them directly, rather than via the administrators. 

M_j_t

Brie said:

When I did admin for an inhouse scheme we'd filter all of our records of those in receipt of a pension against the various electronic death registers that were easily accessible.  We'd also filter against anyone who may have contacted us in the last couple of years for whatever reason - change of bank details, change of address, query.  Where nothing was found in either of those searches an "are you alive" letter would be sent. 

As I recall we gave 3 months for a response but did consider what other issues someone might have preventing a response.  We did have a  number of pensioners in the middle east and due to Arab Spring uprisings knew they were going to be unlikely to either get our letters or be able to respond appropriately - i.e. they couldn't get their response counter-signed by a police officer, doctor, bank official - so extra time was allowed for that.  But that's what you can do when it's in house admin rather than being a contracted admin like Capita, WTW, etc who must simply abide by trustees rules.  

Very interesting, informative, useful and much appreciated. I might try regularly submitting a change, perhaps also requesting the Scheme Rules. My guess is that my death would require the executor (currently the State of NSW by default) to contact the provider(s). In this case the provider is Aptia who recently took over from Mercer (at a guess a year or so ago, got access to their OneView October 24).