NEST Pensions Q&A

Zanderman wrote: »

Hi Nest Pensions, good to see you back on MSE (and officially this time!)

The questions below (already mentioned by others above) are adapted from my post on another NEST thread here:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5733909 (still unanswered... )

Could you address the problems people are reporting regularly re NEST - which relate to transfers in. You, NEST, insist on the previous pension provider filling in a form whereas the convention is that the previous pension provider expects you, NEST, to fill in a form.

There are reports on this forum that this approach goes on for months, with both sides blaming the other. Do NEST have any comment and/or a solution to this?

Here are three other threads about this:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5731390
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5665098
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5732027

dunstonh wrote: »

I will just clarify that as its linked to my comment further up.

Most providers do not fill in discharge forms. In fact nowadays, most providers don't need discharge forms at all as they use the origo options system for transfers.

However, where one side or both do not use that system, discharge forms are still usually required but only for the client signature. The discharge forms still usually have the boxes for completion by the receiving scheme but no provider fills them in (although some have just moved to a request to transfer form which is usually no more than a single side of A4 with a couple of sentences). The providers issue each other with all the details that each other needs to complete the transfer (like a data sheet).

NEST is virtually unique in insisting that the other provider writes in handwriting all that info from the datasheet onto the NEST form and sign it. Most providers refuse to that as it is time-consuming and expensive. Although, NEST just borrows money from taxpayers. So, efficiency is not likely to be its strong point.

dunstonh wrote: »

Why do NEST insist on completion of discharge forms by providers when no other pension provider out there does the same?

This issue has popped on the forum several times. Providers won't fill them in. Nest insists on it and you get deadlock. Completion of discharge forms is very 1990s. Is it about time NEST stopped creating this block?

Hi there,

Firstly thanks for your posts. Your feedback on transfers, along with similar feedback from other customers, has been very valuable, and timely. It’s been an important topic of discussion within NEST too. NEST is a relative newcomer to handling transfers (less than a year) so we appreciate there is room for improvement. To this end, we’ve already kicked off a review of our processes, and customer feedback like yours, will be an important input to that.

One further point relating to the post, specifically the comment: “ … insisting that the other provider writes in handwriting all that info from the datasheet onto the NEST form and sign it …” – it’s true that we ask other pension providers to add their details to the Transfer-in request form, however if the provider provides these details in their own format (instead of using our form), that’s fine, we just request that the member does the following:

1.reads through the information the provider has given to make sure its accurate and they still want to go ahead with the transfer into NEST.

2.reads and signs the ‘Member declaration’ on our Transfer-in request form and sends this to NEST along with the information the other provider has given.

Further information about transfers is available at: https://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/NestWeb/public/memberhelpcentre/contents/how-can-i-transfer-money-in-or-out-of-nest.html

Thanks.