Workplace Pension

MaceAce

I have little confidence in the accuracy and reliability of the information displayed on the workplace pension website.

Please offer any advice what to do.

In my workplace pension 5k was added to my pension account - this was clearly a mistake. I notified my pension provider. No answer from them.

For 2 weeks the higher value of my pension fund on the web site was shown. Then after 2 weeks 6K was taken out of my account. I contacted my pension provider. 1 week later - I received an email saying there had been an administration error and now corrected.

Also In September I noted my pension appeared to be in 'free-fall' for 7 days ( negative balance every day) which has never happened before. This seems to be such a coincidence since reporting accuracy displayed on the workplace pension website.

I would appreciate what I should do.

Woodstok2000

It depends what your pension is invested in, and the size of the decrease, but 7 days of negative growth is not necessarily particularly unusual. For example, the FTSE500 declined every day from 4th to 10th September.

Aylesbury_Duck

Who added the £5k?

If you have an email which explains the error and how it's been corrected, that should be that element sorted. As for values, assuming your pension is invested (rather than just held as cash) then values will move around daily, and could decrease on successive days. As with any long-term investment, it's the trend over years and decades that's important, not movement in daily prices in one week. It becomes more important if you're about to retire and access the pension imminently, but that's a whole lot more advice about how it fits in with your financial objectives.

You'll be better off posting this on the pensions forum.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6685661/workplace-pension

Who is the pension provider?

DRS1

So they added £5k and subtracted £6k. Did you ask why the difference of £1k? Or was that just a fat finger?

QrizB

I have little confidence in the accuracy and reliability of the information displayed on the workplace pension website.

Which pension provider is this?

In my workplace pension 5k was added to my pension account - this was clearly a mistake. I notified my pension provider. No answer from them.

Scottish Widows briefly added £5M to mine once 😂 but they corrected it within a week or so.

Also In September I noted my pension appeared to be in 'free-fall' for 7 days ( negative balance every day) which has never happened before.

This could be the first time you've seen this, and if you're fairly new to pensions and investing it might even be the first time it's happened to you, but markets do fall and the fall can carry on for quite a while.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82159068#Comment_82159068

I was wondering if there was tax relief applied between the original erroneous net contribution and its reversal, although at 20% of the gross figure, this wouldn't quite reconcile unless there's some rounding in the presentation…

DRS1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82159082#Comment_82159082

Ah yes I hadn't thought of that. The tax would probably have shown up as a separate entry when credited. As you say that would make more sense if the figures were 4 and 5 not 5 and 6 but it could be rounding.

dunstonh

Also In September I noted my pension appeared to be in 'free-fall' for 7 days ( negative balance every day) which has never happened before.

There have been plenty of negative periods lasting more than 7 days. Perhaps you just were not watching it before.

During the first lockdowns, markets fell virtually every day for a month.

And what's your definition of free fall?

eskbanker

I noted my pension appeared to be in 'free-fall' for 7 days ( negative balance every day) which has never happened before

At the risk of being pedantic, if your pension has a negative balance then that really is something to worry about!

Negative change in balance is of course something entirely different and should be expected frequently until reaching the decumulation phase when less risky investments will generally be preferred - what are the actual investments held within your pension?