Royal London Group Personal Pension · CAS-109285-L9Q3

CAS-109285-L9Q3

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Mr N

Scheme Royal London Group Personal Pension (the Scheme)

Respondent Mills Property Group (the Employer)

Outcome

Background information, including submissions from the parties

In May 2021, Mr N began his employment with the Employer.

In November 2021, the Employer failed to pay £52.07 into the Scheme despite making deductions from Mr N’s salary.

Mr N provided a copy of the payslip that he held for November 2021 which detailed the pension contributions deducted from his pay and the corresponding employer contributions. These deductions amounted to £52.07. A breakdown of the deductions has been set out in the Appendix.

In September 2023, Mr N brought his complaint to The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO).

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• The Adjudicator stated that TPO’s normal approach, in cases such as these, was to seek agreement from all parties on the facts of the complaint, including the dates and amounts of contributions involved. He said that, as the Employer had not responded to any of TPO’s communications, he had to base his Opinion solely on the information provided by Mr N.

• The Adjudicator said that he had no reason to doubt the information provided by Mr N. So, in the Adjudicator’s Opinion, on the balance of probabilities, contributions had been deducted from Mr N’s salary, but had not been paid into the Scheme. In addition, the Employer had not paid any of the employer contributions that were due over the same period. As a result of its maladministration, Mr N was not in the financial position he ought to be in.

On 29 May 2024, Mr N contacted TPO and confirmed that the outstanding contributions had still not been paid. Mr N also said that he was told by NEST that he was no longer able to receive payments into the Scheme as it had been switched to a new scheme with Standard Life. Mr N provided instructions he received from NEST on how to make the payment to his account with Standard Life. These instructions were sent to the Employer.

On 3 June 2024, TPO chased the Employer again but received no response.

Ombudsman’s decision

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Directions

(i) pay Mr N 500 for the significant distress and inconvenience he has experienced;

(ii) pay £52.07 into Mr N’s Standard Life account. Mr Y

;

(iii) establish with Standard Life whether the late payment of contributions has meant that fewer units were purchased in Mr N’s Standard Life account than he would have otherwise secured, had the contributions been paid on time; and

(iv) pay any reasonable administration fee should the Standard Life administrator charge a fee for carrying out the above calculation.

Anthony Arter CBE

Deputy Pensions Ombudsman

23 July 2024

3 CAS-109285-L9Q3 Appendix Date Employee contributions Employer contributions

25/11/21 £28.93 £23.14

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