Dodgy dealings with a pension?

knuckledragger

A friend of mine has a slight problem.
She has worked for a small printing firm for about 20 years.
Her firm set up an occupational pension scheme in 1988 but did not allow her the opportunity to join until 1999. In February this year she became 60 years old. She has continued working for the company and is not likely to retire in the near future. She received a letter from her pension company stating that her firm had stopped making pension contributions into her fund and that they had been informed that her pension was to be shown as matured on her 60th birthday. The pension company had attempted to collect her contributions in March which indicates to me that her maturity date was decided after her firm received the threat from the pension company to report the non-payment.
She makes no additional payments into the occupational scheme.

To my untrained eye, it all looks a bit moody.

1.Should she have been given the opportunity to be included in the occupational scheme in 1988 and is she due to have her funds topped up by the company to reflect this?

2.Should her occupational scheme have been shown as matured without her permission as she is still working for the company. Are they attempting to get out of having to pay her pension contributions by doing this?

Any help would be appreciated as I hate the thought of elders being had over by companies.

Debt_Free_Chick

knuckledragger wrote:

A friend of mine has a slight problem.
She has worked for a small printing firm for about 20 years.
Her firm set up an occupational pension scheme in 1988 but did not allow her the opportunity to join until 1999. In February this year she became 60 years old. She has continued working for the company and is not likely to retire in the near future. She received a letter from her pension company stating that her firm had stopped making pension contributions into her fund and that they had been informed that her pension was to be shown as matured on her 60th birthday. The pension company had attempted to collect her contributions in March which indicates to me that her maturity date was decided after her firm received the threat from the pension company to report the non-payment.
She makes no additional payments into the occupational scheme.

To my untrained eye, it all looks a bit moody.

1.Should she have been given the opportunity to be included in the occupational scheme in 1988 and is she due to have her funds topped up by the company to reflect this?

What were the eligibility conditions then? Full time staff? Staff of a certain grade? Staff at the discretion of the employer? Employers can restrict access to pension schemes so long as they don't discriminate against minority groups. More information needed on the eligibility conditions at that time.

2.Should her occupational scheme have been shown as matured without her permission as she is still working for the company. Are they attempting to get out of having to pay her pension contributions by doing this?

Normally the pension would "mature" once she reached normal retirement age. Perhaps there's a simple mix up about the timing of her final contribution ....

Any help would be appreciated as I hate the thought of elders being had over by companies.

OPAS may be able to help here.

dunstonh

Referring to the scheme booklet would also answer these questions.

knuckledragger

I'm not sure she was actually given a scheme booklet. When the scheme was introduced she was in post operative recovery. All other members of staff joined the company scheme. I will have to dig a little deeper.

dunstonh

Scheme booklets are available on request. They cannot deny that.

knuckledragger

DD,
She wasn't given any correspondence when she was admitted to the scheme in 1999. Does she apply to the pension provider for the scheme booklet?

knuckledragger

DFC,
Entry to the company scheme was open to all staff members- One person didn't join and my friend wasn't invited to join.

Thanks for the OPAS (TPAS) link. It was very useful. We'll try and resolve things with her company first and if things look dodgy then we'll contact TPAS.

dunstonh

Yes, contact the pension administrator and tell them that you dont hold a scheme booklet and dont recall being issued with one and can they send you one.

Scheme booklets are full of very useful information.

Pal

Also, if she can honestly say that she was never given details of the pension scheme when she originally joined, the she could claim that she has lost out and demand reinstatement. A long shot but it sometimes works, especially if the company records are rubbish.

knuckledragger

Pal,
I've just seen one of her payslips. It is a pretty shambolic handwritten issue. I'd be very surprised if any early pension details have been kept by her company.
Next step is to obtain a scheme booklet and find out when the maturity date was set.

knuckledragger

The tale continues...

Last week her company's accountant was in for a visit. She explained the situation to him and he immediately told her boss that he would be liable to a fine if the situation wasn't rectified.
The boss said that he had never directed that her pension contributions be stopped and was at a loss as to how this error had occurred. Hmmmnnn.

Next comes a letter from the pension provider. They state that they have now amended her retirement date to her 75th birthday so they can recommence contributions from her employer. She can now take her benefits any time up until then.

Now all that needs doing is to find out if she should have been eligible for the scheme prior to 1999.