At the end of October, we wrote to hundreds of members who had transferred their pensions out of one of the Lloyds Banking Group final salary pension scheme providing them with a standard letter to send to the Trustee. That letter said:
“I have enclosed details of when I left my Lloyds pension scheme, the transfer payment I received and my new pension scheme details. I should be grateful if you could arrange for my transfer payment to be correctly calculated in line with my right to equalised benefits. If I am entitled to a top-up payment, then that should be paid without further delay. I should also be grateful if you could explain how my transfer payment and top-up payment, if I’m entitled to one, were calculated”.
Those members who sent the letter to Mr Harry Baines, Chairman of the Trustee Board, have not received a response nor even an acknowledgement that the letter was received by the Trustee. That is unacceptable.
The High Court said: “the Trustee owed a duty to a transferring member to make a transfer payment which was correctly calculated, and which reflected the member’s right to equalised benefits”. The Trustee needs to abide by that judgement and implement it now.
We will be sending members a follow-up letter to send to the Trustee asking for a response to their claim by 13th January 2023. If the Trustee fails to respond substantively to those letters then we will produce a standard letter for members to make a formal complaint to Mr Charles Counsell, Chief Executive, The Pensions Regulator, using the ‘whistleblowing’ procedure.
We will keep members informed of development.
Members with any questions should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 262868 (choose Option 1).