My employer has cocked up my pension

[starfish2000]

In 2018 after a bought of mental health issues. I decided to go part time at my work. I have a final salary pension. I am a train guard.

In my pension estimates. The amount of lump sum and pension estimate did decrease within a year. So I never ever thought to worry about it.

After a really horrible week at work ( assaulted twice and some bullying) and with my 55th Birthday approaching. I decided to take my pension.

Then this afternoon my company payroll contacted me saying that

‘this year I noticed there was a difference with what Rail Pen were expecting and what payroll were deducting - this is when I noticed your part time hours aren't recorded on the Rail Pen portal.’

So basically all my retirement plans have gone to shit as I’ve been given the incorrect information for the last five years. I am absolutely at my wits end. My employer is a toxic mess and I really want out.

Do I have any legal recourse?

 

[two sheds]

Can you do the voluntary pension payments for people who don't have enough stamps?

 

[newme]

ACAS

 

[two sheds]

yes ACAS - to try to reclaim

 

[Elpenor]

So just to clarify - you have been working and paid as part time for a number of years but your hours have been recorded with the pension administrator as full time, as they were not notified when your hours reduced.

They have given you annual pension statements. And you have based your decision to retire on these statements. But these statements are wrong as they are based upon working full time, which is not correct.

I am very sorry but not sure you will have any recourse as the pension administrator will most likely say that any discrepancy should have been picked up from the annual statement (I would expect this to include your hours).

You may be able to buy additional pension depending on scheme rules but this would likely mean working a few more years.

 

[MickiQ]

There's also the Pensions Ombudsman as well you can try

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Can you talk to the union about it? Would have thought they will have people who understand the pension scheme. May not be your local rep / steward - one of the skills of being a lay union rep is knowing when to say 'i need to talk to branch / region office about this'

Some schemes do - as Elpenor says, allow you to buy additional service / pension but the rules will vary from one scheme to another, and I don't know anything about your pension scheme.

likewise how schemes handle people reducing hours / pay varies - some schemes are strictly 'final salary' so you get a bad deal in circumstances like this (or effectively have to resign from the scheme and have existing service deferred, then join again on your new part time hours), others do 'career average' or something like that, so you don't lose what you build up while working full time if you do reduce to part time towards retirement. again, i don't know the detail for your scheme.

As an alternative, you could consider starting a thread on rail forums - there are quite a few serving / retired railway staff on there, and while the 'railway jobs and careers' bit tends mainly to be about people seeking jobs, they do get questions from existing staff, so may be worth a try.

 

[tommers]

We had the reverse where work hadn't recorded pay rises and adjusted the pension. It took ages but we managed to get it sorted out. I don't think you'll be able to get the extra money as you weren't supposed to have it. It is always worth a try though.

If you really hate your job (and it sounds like it's been awful tbf) can you leave and get something else to tide you over until your finances allow you to retire? I dont know how final salary pensions work so ignore me if I'm being an idiot.

 

[starfish2000]

I’ve got the union involved. But thanks for all the advice.

I used to really enjoy my job. But at weekends I’ve become a zookeeper to middle aged drunken men who want to fight each other. So it’s time for a change.

 

[Silas Loom]

I’ve got the union involved. But thanks for all the advice.

I used to really enjoy my job. But at weekends I’ve become a zookeeper to middle aged drunken men who want to fight each other. So it’s time for a change.

Are you in a position to implement a Thunderdome carriage and leave them to it?

 

[InArduisFouette]

Can you do the voluntary pension payments for people who don't have enough stamps?

irrelevant with regard to employee contribution to a Occupational Pension scheme ( whether DB or DC and if DB whether final salary or CARE as the pension % 'brought' depends on FTE years of service

 

[two sheds]

ah of course, ta

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Can you get signed off sick for a bit with stress and get your union involved, see if there's alternative shifts you can do that don't involve dealing with the weekend piss-heads? Or is there a desk job you could do, or another redeployment?

If you have longstanding mental health condition, that would fall under disability and you could perhaps ask for alternative, less risky, shifts or redeployment as a 'reasonable adjustment' under equalities legislation.



As far as legal recourse goes, you'd need to go through any official complaints procedure and then take it up with the ombudsman.

There might be some alternative avenues of legal recourse, eg if you sustained any injuries as a result of being assaulted at work, if you sustained an injury that lasted at least four weeks, you could try to bring a personal injury claim against your employer, essentially arguments that they failed in their duty towards you to provide a safe place of work in some way, maybe didn't carry out appropriate risk assessments, didn't have enough staff on duty, etc., maybe there wasn't sufficient CCTV and/or monitoring, etc, those kinds of issues.

If there wasn't any physical injury, there's the possibility to claim for personal injury due to stress at work, although I understand that's trickier to prove.

Or alternatively, again depending on what, if any, injuries you sustained, then Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority might be an option.

 

[smmudge]

With respect entirely to the pension scheme, unfortunately I would agree that the recourse would be minimal. Your first step would be to take it through IDRP of the scheme. This can take up to 4 months. Once that's happened, you could take it to The Pensions Ombudsman (again more months for a decision).

BUT pension complaints aren't like other financial services, where you likely would be compensated for shite service like issuing incorrect statements that you may rely on to make financial decisions. In the pensions world they (IDRP & TPO) will look only at matters of law, and accordance to the trust scheme and rules. So if the scheme rules say you would be entitled to X, it doesn't really matter what shite the scheme admins tell you unfortunately.

The only reasons the TPO may award compensation is if as a result of the false information, you had started spending "excessively " or taken on more financial commitments as a result.

I echo to talk to your union all the same and I hope the situation improves for you soon.

 

[two sheds]

you'd think the employer would have a duty of care but as I've already shown on the thread I have little idea

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

With respect entirely to the pension scheme, unfortunately I would agree that the recourse would be minimal. Your first step would be to take it through IDRP of the scheme. This can take up to 4 months. Once that's happened, you could take it to The Pensions Ombudsman (again more months for a decision).

BUT pension complaints aren't like other financial services, where you likely would be compensated for shite service like issuing incorrect statements that you may rely on to make financial decisions. In the pensions world they (IDRP & TPO) will look only at matters of law, and accordance to the trust scheme and rules. So if the scheme rules say you would be entitled to X, it doesn't really matter what shite the scheme admins tell you unfortunately.

The only reasons the TPO may award compensation is if as a result of the false information, you had started spending "excessively " or taken on more financial commitments as a result.

I echo to talk to your union all the same and I hope the situation improves for you soon.

And it would be hard to prove maladministration or any kind of failures on the part of the pension provider if it was actually the employer that was at fault for reporting inaccurate earnings/pensions contributions to the pension provider in the first instance.