Who's at fault?

Marcon

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81872962#Comment_81872962

From what you've said, this sounds like a mis-sold personal pension, with redress being reinstatement into the NHS scheme, rather than a simple transfer of your personal pension into the NHS scheme - is that correct?

If it is, then it's much more complicated than just 'matching the NHS contributions you would have made' - the cost would have been considerably higher to the personal pension provider, since it would have to take into account the cost to the NHS of providing benefits for the 'mis-sold' period (hence their 'like for like' comment).

There's no point pushing for anything until you find out what actually happened - and the NHS scheme is the best (and probably only) source of that information if you can't find the paperwork so long after the event.

I'd go back to the NHS scheme and keeping your email or letter as succinct and clear as possible:

• give them a summary of your work history as accurately as you can and ask them to confirm that your dates of being full time and part time correlate with what they have on record; and
• ask them to confirm what exactly they have on file in respect of the redress payment made by your personal pension provider.

I'd do this as Stage 1 of the IDRP (link to the form in my post above), and there is of course nothing to stop you making a Subject Access Request at the same time - BUT I'd do the two things as separate requests, because there are different time scales for replying, and you don't want the scheme to opt for the longer one for both requests.

PoGee

Yes, Marcon - it was a mis-sold claim. I've emailed the NHS scheme multiple times asking that they confirm that they have the correct work record but all they do is send a screenshot of their data sheet, which gives yearly days worked. I'll go through them again over the weekend to see if I can understand what it says.

Do you think there's any chance of the NHS pension team taking the Jan 1992 date as the start date?

Does it sound like things weren't handled the way they should have been?

I'll fill out the IDRP form at the weekend also.

PoGee

Letter June 1997

...we have completed a comparison of benefits between those given up under the NHS pension scheme and those provided by your personal pension. The comparison showed that you have suffered a loss as a result of the advice you were given at the time to take out a personal pension.

We propose to redress the situation by paying for your reinstatement into your company scheme.

We have also checked to see if you paid higher or lower level of contributions to your personal pension than you would have to the Scheme. You have paid less into your personal pension than you would have to the scheme and you may be required to pay the shortfall in contributions to obtain full reinstatement. This will be reflected in our formal offer of redress.....

2nd letter

I am pleased to inform you that this review has now been completed and I am now able to make you an offer of compensation. This offer will place you in the position you would have been in, had you become an active member of the NHS pension scheme. This will be done by buying back the benefits which you lost by not joining.

This offer is dependent on all information used in the review being accurate and up to date.

3rd letter - asking for £1500 ' in respect of the difference in contributions you would have made to the NHS scheme had you remained in the NHS scheme etc etc (?? I was not in the scheme until years later)

The NHS pension scheme (last week) sent me a copy of a letter from around that time which said that approximately £13000 had been received which bought 3.5 years, taking me to July 1992.

This is all very confusing.

QrizB

3rd letter - asking for £1500 ' in respect of the difference in contributions you would have made to the NHS scheme had you remained in the NHS scheme etc etc (?? I was not in the scheme until years later)

Do you remember if you paid the £1500?

Marcon

Did you pay the £1500? The letter may have been poorly worded, but the message is clear: you paid less to your personal pension than you would have paid had you joined the NHS scheme instead of taking out a PP, so (in line with standard compensation arrangements at the time), you needed to pay that amount. If you didn't pay it, then that could (I emphasise 'could') account for why your pensionable service appears to be calculated from July rather than January 1992.

PoGee

Thanks for replies.

I didn't pay the £1500 so I agree that the calculation should start from July 1992 to spring 1999 as full time, after which I became part time.

But - the confusion is that the NHS scheme themselves start it from (on datasheet) Jan 1992 to 1995 (when I joined scheme officially) as part time. But I was full time during this period! This is even though they sent me the copy of letter quoting the July 1992 date.

I'll definitely go the official route and ask for formal clarification. I write here in case I was missing something.

Marcon

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81873735#Comment_81873735

Make sure you ask that specific question. It's often much easier for a scheme to reply to something fairly narrow in scope ('please could you explain why the data sheet says….') rather than the tempting 'don't understand any of this'.

To answer your earlier questions - based on the information you've been able to post, it's not possible to say whether things were handled correctly or not, or whether January 1992 might be used as the starting date. Fingers crossed your next attempt to extract information might bear fruit!

PoGee

Thanks Marcon. I'll draft questions this weekend. I think it's a 4 month wait time for them to get back but I'm not in too much of a rush.