Pension charges SCAM

[Guest mediaseller]

I don't know if anyone can help with this but I'll give it a shot anyway.

 

My wife wants to draw down some money from her pension. She has done this before but did not take the full 25% she is entitled to take. She is 57 like me.

 

She has been given the guilt trip blurb by the broker who says because it's a group pension (at work) she will reduce the pot for everyone. Quite frankley that's not our problem because pension pots are dropping anyway and that's not our fault.

 

The cheeky broker is saying that to do the work will take up to 3 hours at £150 per hour. Can he charge this much? He didn't charge anything last time. (Nor to set it up for that matter).

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[buzby]

He can do this, IF he advises his rate and you agree with it. Howeever, is is onlt a broker, and if you can find another to act for you his rates may well be considerably less. It might be useful to get a few quotes, and then go back to the original guy, saying that you can get the work done for £150 in total (not the £450 he wants). So he can either match it, on lose the business.

[Guest mediaseller]

Hi buzby.

 

I don't think it's possible to do this since it is a occupational group policy through her employer so I believe she has to stick with him.

 

thanks

[buzby]

We might not be a 'broker' in the accepted sense. Is there anyone at the firm who can advise, as the £450 fee (to my mind) is wholly ureasonable.

[Guest mediaseller]

Hi buzby.

 

Perhaps not since she is trying to keep it private for personal reasons. I did suggest that she takes out everything that she can to minimise the impact of the charge. I think she is going to haggle with him later today.

 

thanks again.

[Guest mediaseller]

My wife has drawn down some money from her pension and has allegedly been overpaid by approximately £600.

She received a letter from the pension company shortly after receiving her money to the effect that an overpayment had occurred and she would have to pay it back. When she questioned this she received another letter stating that it was an error and that she did not have to pay it back. A few weeks later she then received yet another letter saying that she did owe the money.

She has since written to them asking them to clarify the situation and they have again written to her enclosing a photo-copy of the last letter which of course states that she owes the money.

Since the second letter stating she did not owe the money she has spent it so I am considering writing to the company to advise them that I will invoke the Doctrine of Estoppel and that she will not be paying it back as she would be financially embarrassed in doing so and putting them to strict proof that an error has been made.

Any advice is welcomed.

[phoenix11]

No idea, but it sounds like you can but give it a go.

 

Can you/ your wife show adequate grounds for not paying back the alleged overpayment and that it has been spent in good faith on items that are within her 'normal' lifestyle?

[Guest mediaseller]

No idea, but it sounds like you can but give it a go.

 

Can you/ your wife show adequate grounds for not paying back the alleged overpayment and that it has been spent in good faith on items that are within her 'normal' lifestyle?

 

Hi.

 

Yes she can show adequate grounds on the basis that I am unemployed and the whole point of the draw-down was to pay bills for a few months until I could find work. I'm still unemployed by the way.

 

Regards

Mediaseller

[sequenci]

I think you have a decent shot here, especially since you were told that they wouldn't be trying to recover the overpayment. It would be inequitable for them to change their mind from where I'm sitting.

[phoenix11]

I'd also say that given they took a 'few weeks' to change their mind again and say it was owed, you could show that they were seriously at fault for not checking to make sure when confirming the amount did not have to be repaid, or for getting in touch very soon after.

 

Also, they should have sent a detailed explanation to show why there had been an overpayment in the first place - not to just send a photocopy of the last letter.

 

This gives the impression that their overpayment claim may be wrong again anyway as they have failed to provide proof.

 

However, as they didn't do any of this in a timely manner from the start, and then confirmed they'd made an error and left it at that for some time, I'd say you have a good case, but don't expect the people at the other end to understand any of it.

 

You may be in for a long, drawn-out correspondence.