pension will cost me £100 to receive

Marcon

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82165977#Comment_82165977

Equiniti pay the latter but not the former - and OP's first post says:

'….even my MP has got the minister to write to Equinity who pay the pensions but they refuse to budge.'

Until OP comes back and engages with this thread, there's not much point posting anything further - but looking at how their original question was worded, they appeared to be asking for support for their viewpoint, rather than ways to get their pension put back into payment.

Both FOS and the Pensions Ombudsman take a pretty brisk view of claimants who object to being asked to provide ID in the form required by their particular scheme eg https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/sites/default/files/decisions/CAS-131934-C9C3.pdf

This refers to a different public sector scheme (NHS) but the principles hold good. Note especially:

Either OP sorts out a new passport (or other satisfactory evidence), or the pension remains suspended. OP's choice; nobody here can help.

QrizB

From their previous posts the OP lives what might be considered an alternative lifestyle in a relatively remote location. Possibly getting a passport is a considerable undertaking for them?

Exodi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82166006#Comment_82166006

Isn't that always the way? People positively furious at being asked for ID, yet would simultaneously be the first lambasting the administrators for not taking every precaution if their pensions were to be paid out to a bad actor.

I'm not a big fan of the framing of this thread either - "pension will cost me £100 to receive" and "the only ID that they accept that is applicable to me (?) is a passport which mine is out of date so it will cost me £100 to get my own pension paid to me" feels very disingenuous.

I don't see people suggesting the banks are charging £100 for an account, or the supermarkets charge a £100 fee to buy a can of beer.

Gonk1967

This whole ID verification thing is getting way out of hand. I understand it's for the likes of money laundering, but in the past year I've had to pay 4 times with 4 different ID agencies (or whatever they are). You have to do it when you sell a house, then again when you buy a house, then again for Companies house if you're a director!

Bloody ridiculous.

Interesting, I've done the same things (including the recent verification for companies house) and didn't need to use an agency or pay a fee for any of them.

I think being against AML checks is such a bizarre position that I'm surprised to see pop up on this forum from time to time (but I think in most cases it's usually just the person being intransigent, as opposed to any consideration about security).

jim1999

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82166027#Comment_82166027

To be fair, buying and selling houses is an example where this happens. For a lot of estate agents, they unbundle the AML checks from the other costs (so you might pay an agent £5k to sell a house, and £50 to complete AML before listing). You could argue that they should absorb the AML costs, but they're free to pass them onto the end user.

Nonetheless I agree with the thrust of your post.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82166023#Comment_82166023

Quite possibly, although a year ago the OP was setting up an NS&I account to receive a £300k inheritance.

Be a bit surprising if somewhere along that transaction chain there wasn't a need for some formal ID?

westv

What we don't know is how long the OP had been receiving the pension for and why was he asked for photo ID after receiving it for that unknown length of time

Brie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82165776#Comment_82165776

Yes. But the tell us once service would ensure the central death records are updated and pension admins can access that.

Exodi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82166134#Comment_82166134

It's probably academic at this point? AML checks for existing account holders are not unusual, though as you mention, there are usually triggers (either from the account holder, or the institution).

I work as the director for a medium-sized business, our banks require us to regularly jump through AML hoops, despite being a customer for many decades - we've done 2 at least this year alone, random questions asking for specific information about directors, ID, addresses, etc. Most of the time I don't know the trigger, in this case perhaps they require a current (e.g. not expired) ID on the system? Perhaps the OP ignored the 'Are you alive letter'? FWIW now it's been asked, it matters little what we think (and this is reinforced by the fact even their local MP was not able to influence the decision).

One thing I have learned across the various business I am affiliated with, you can't talk (or argue) your way out of an AML check… which seems obvious (though I know it's annoying at the time being asked for a colleagues mothers shoe size or to apply for an ID you don't need for anything else). Better that than businesses / government being carefree in regards to security and fraud, especially in the current world of scams, which will only get worse with AI.

Aretnap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82166134#Comment_82166134

We don't know that (though Marcon had made a reasonable guess) but it doesn't really have any bearing on the OP's options now. Which are basically to get a passport, find some other acceptable form of ID that he can get, or do without his pension. Us telling him how ridiculously unfair it all is, or speculating on the reasons it's been stopped won't change those basic facts, unfortunately.

Aretnap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82166023#Comment_82166023

That might certainly explain why he seems to have missed or not replied to the "proof of life, please" letters, but from his posts he seems to be more upset about the principle of paying for ID than about the practicalities.

If only we had free, mandatory, government issued ID cards like they have in authoritarian dictatorships like (checks notes) France.