Retired based on someone else's pension statement

Crocus

Free Member
Sep 20, 2010
62
5
Looking for some additional first steps for my mum other than Pensions Advisory Service please, but appreciate that this may be one and only step forward.

My mum is 70 this year and works in the NHS. In Feb this year she took her pension statement to an IFA who advised as it was dated 2014 (when she was 65) he would need an up to date one to ensure the position hadn't changed.

This she obtained, and the IFA confirmed the position was the same. He made a plan which showed, though tight, the money was sufficient to enable her to retire.

As she is a senior sister she had to provide 3 months notice, her last day was 28th June. On 26th June she received some paperwork that confirmed the pension lump sum and annual payment.

This paperwork showed the monies as being HALF what had been provided to her TWICE previously. She was so distraught she threw up, and told me she contemplated ending it all because the numbers showed she cannot live.

A colleague at work saw the state she was in and supported her to go to HR, and speaking with them about retracting her retirement, since the decision was based on this inaccurate information, that I reiterate was provided to her twice.

HR said impossible to retract resignation, and nothing could be done. They rapidly established that the figures provided to her were for someone else's salary. TWICE.

(Side note- would the IFA not have done a sanity check that the pension figures were in line with mum's salary?)

Her manager stepped in and has said she can do 16 hours a week until the person replacing her comes in.

She is in a hell of a state, seen GP and medicated.

I just don't know what to do, she's been told by HR her pension is her pension and that's that. She asked to leave the pension where it was, and again they said nothing can be done she has to take the lump sum she requested.

But if she'd been given the true numbers on the 2 previous occasions it was requested she would have made a very different plan. No doubt continued working. But this would have been planned over months, not 2 days before her retirement.

She has most definitely suffered a loss. Is there any legal process or is it pension advisory service all the way?
Welcome any thoughts thank you.
 
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WaveJumper

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    Aug 26, 2013
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    So sorry too hear about the problems your mother is having my first thoughts are:

    She needs to officially put a compliant into the HR department in writing with all the details, sit down with her and carefully get all the details down, dates, information given etc etc and as scalloway has mentioned already possible union route for sure.
     
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    Crocus

    Free Member
    Sep 20, 2010
    62
    5
    Thanks for the advice and comments. Yes she is part of the nursing union and they are aware.

    We have got to the bottom of what has happened and it has wider implications, it appears to be a fundamental failure in the process- so my mum cannot be the only one, or there are others it will happen to.

    It appears that you are not provided with an accurate pension statement until a particular form is submitted from the hospital to the pension administrator.

    This form is only made available to you after you have submitted your resignation.

    Thus any "up to date" pension statement you obtain to inform your decision making is based on the position when the hospital last updated the pension administrator.

    So in my mothers case it was when she was 65.

    Thus anyone who requested a pension statement was not getting the accurate figures. They were only getting figures based on when last their salary was communicated to the pension administrator.

    So even though my mum was requesting the up to date pension statement to inform whether or not she could afford to retire, the hospital did not inform the pension administrator of her current salary until after she resigned.

    As it is the pension statement she had still doesn't stack up as doesn't reflect her salary in 2014 either.

    If you consider how many people perhaps drop their hours, or their pay grade, so their salary changes after 65- everyone's pension statement will be wrong.

    The pensions ombudsman is advising us on next steps.
     
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    Mr D

    Free Member
    Feb 12, 2017
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    Stirling
    *scratches head*

    If she's deferred her pension for five years, how has the amount gone down?

    That's never occurred to me before - if your salary goes down and you're on a final salary scheme, do you really get less money?

    May depend on the employer.
    I knew a senior manager in civil service, 50 years service when he retired at age 65, after age 62 he could only be an admin officer - around 12% of his salary at age 61.
    His pension was based on his salary prior to the drop.
     
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    Crocus

    Free Member
    Sep 20, 2010
    62
    5
    Yes this is very confusing.

    It's been confirmed that the pension is "based on your salary over the last 3 years" so yes as she dropped some hours as she got older (she's an active nurse) she's got a lower salary and lower pension.

    But even so this statement from 2014 (and Feb 2019) was never her salary, even with overtime. So something else screwy going on.
     
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    Mr D

    Free Member
    Feb 12, 2017
    28,915
    3,627
    Stirling
    Yes this is very confusing.

    It's been confirmed that the pension is "based on your salary over the last 3 years" so yes as she dropped some hours as she got older (she's an active nurse) she's got a lower salary and lower pension.

    But even so this statement from 2014 (and Feb 2019) was never her salary, even with overtime. So something else screwy going on.

    And screwy for presumably a lot of staff. Makes you wonder what the unions have been doing - by what has been said its not just a problem that has come to light just now.
     
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