Nest · CAS-69189-Z5M8

CAS-69189-Z5M8

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Mr N

Scheme NEST (the Scheme)

Respondent PJ Bournemouth Ltd (the Employer)

Outcome

Complaint summary

Background information, including submissions from the parties In September 2016, Mr N began his employment with the Employer.

In September 2020, Mr N was enrolled into the Scheme. The contributions for September 2020 together with the corresponding employer contributions were paid to the Scheme.

From October 2020, contributions continued to be deducted from Mr N’s pay but were not paid into the Scheme. The Employer also failed to remit the employer contributions into the Scheme.

1 CAS-69189-Z5M8 Mr N provided copies of the payslips that he held for the period from September 2020 to August 2022, which detailed the pension contributions deducted from his pay and the corresponding employer contributions. These deductions amounted to £798.38. A breakdown of the deductions has been included in the Appendix.

On 11 May 2022, TPO asked the Employer for its response to Mr N’s complaint.

The next day, the Employer responded and stated that the payroll company, it used until January 2022, had not been sending schedules to the Scheme. The Employer said it had stopped using the payroll company in January 2022 and the schedules were being reviewed and that payments would be made. The Employer said an accountant was dealing with the payroll now but it was awaiting the payroll company to correct the problems saying that some employees may have been enrolled when they should not have been. The Employer said it is chasing up the payroll company but cannot give a date of when the issue will be rectified.

On 23 May 2022, TPO chased the Employer for a response. This was repeated on 22 June 2022.

On 5 July 2022, the Employer responded and apologised for the delay. It stated that it had been waiting for a response from the payroll company. The Employer said all the schedules have been completed and were due to be paid this month. The Employer offered £350 to Mr N for the investment loss.

On 8 July 2022, TPO asked the Employer to confirm what was being paid and which months the payment related to.

On 11 July 2022, the Employer responded and said that all the payments owed will be made and that the accountant is going back through from January 2020 to the current pay run to make the correct deductions. The Employer said the accountant will submit the schedules to the Scheme so payments will be made.

On 18 July 2022, TPO said that all outstanding contributions and investment loss should be paid within 28 days.

2 CAS-69189-Z5M8 At the end of July 2022, Mr N saw from his payslip that the Employer had resumed deducting contributions from his pay.

On 13 August 2022, Mr N contacted TPO and said that no further contributions have been paid to his Scheme account.

On 15 August 2022, TPO asked NEST if there were any contributions waiting to be allocated to Mr N’s Scheme account.

On 19 August 2022, NEST confirmed that it had not received any contributions since September 2020 for Mr N.

On 23 August 2022, TPO contacted the Employer for an update on the outstanding contributions.

The next day, the Employer responded stating that as far as it was aware the payment was being made within the time limit. The Employer gave an email address for the person responsible for making payments to the Scheme and the owner’s email address. The Employer said it would forward TPO’s email of 23 August 2022 to the owner and the person responsible for making payments to the Scheme. The Employer said that these two people were the people who would be able to provide an update.

On 5 September 2022, TPO asked for an update. But no response was received.

On 20 September 2022, TPO asked Mr N if any contributions had been paid to his Scheme account in the last month.

On 4 October 2022, Mr N advised TPO that there had not been any contributions paid into his Scheme account.

Caseworker’s Opinion

• The Caseworker stated that TPO’s normal approach, in cases such as these, was to seek agreement from all parties as to the facts of the case, including the dates and amounts of contributions involved. She said that, as the Employer has not provided a satisfactory response to any of TPO’s communications, her Opinion was based solely on the information provided by Mr N.

• The Caseworker said that she had no reason to doubt the payslips and pay information provided by Mr N. So, in the Caseworker’s Opinion, it was likely that the contributions, that had been deducted from Mr N’s salary, 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 had suffered a financial loss.

3 CAS-69189-Z5M8 • In the Caseworker’s view, Mr N had experienced serious distress and inconvenience due to the Employer’s maladministration. The Caseworker was of the view that an award of £1,000 for non-financial injustice was appropriate in the circumstances.

Ombudsman’s decision

Directions

(i) pay Mr N £1,000 for the serious distress and inconvenience he has experienced;

(ii) produce a schedule (the Schedule) showing the employee contributions deducted from Mr N’s pay in respect of the period of his employment. The Schedule shall also include the corresponding employer contributions that were due to the Scheme; and

(iii) forward the Schedule to Mr N.

(i) pay the missing contributions to the Scheme;

4 CAS-69189-Z5M8 (ii) establish with the Scheme administrator, NEST, whether the late payment of contributions has meant that fewer units were purchased in Mr N‘s Scheme account than he would have otherwise secured, had the contributions been paid on time; and

(iii) pay any reasonable administration fee should NEST charge a fee for carrying out the above calculation.

Within 14 days of receiving confirmation from NEST of any shortfall in Mr N’s units, pay the cost of purchasing any additional units required to make up the shortfall.

Anthony Arter

Pensions Ombudsman 25 November 2022

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Appendix Pay for Employee Employer Paid Employee contributions Employer contributions to contributions contributions to date on payslip date on payslip

September 2020 £21.07 £15.80 Yes £21.07 £15.80 October 2020 No payslip No payslip No N/A N/A November 2020 No payslip No payslip No N/A N/A December 2020 £9.92 £5.95 No £65.00 £48.75 January 2021 £27.28 £16.37 No £92.28 £69.21 February 2021 £18.97 £11.38 No £111.25 £83.44 March 2021 £21.24 £12.74 No £132.49 £99.37 April 2021 £36.67 £22.00 No Not stated Not stated May 2021 28.97 £17.38 No Not stated Not stated June 2021 £27.75 £16.65 No Not stated Not stated July 2021 No payslip No payslip No Not stated Not stated August 2021 No payslip No payslip No Not stated Not stated September 2021 £47.75 £28.65 No Not stated Not stated October 2021 £29.16 £17.49 No Not stated Not stated

1 Peter Allen PJ Bournemouth Ltd CAS-69189-Z5M8 November 2021 £29.25 £17.55 No Not stated Not stated December 2021 £24.83 £14.90 No Not stated Not stated January 2022 £0.00 £0.00 N/A N/A N/A February 2022 £0.00 £0.00 N/A N/A N/A March 2022 £0.00 £0.00 N/A N/A N/A April 2022 £0.00 £0.00 N/A N/A N/A May 2022 £0.00 £0.00 N/A N/A N/A June 2022 £0.00 £0.00 N/A N/A N/A July 2022 £54.48 £32.69 No £142.48 N/A August 2022 £28.37 £17.02 No £170.85 £102.51 Total contributions due £498.75 £336.50

Total contributions paid £21.07 £15.80

Total contributions outstanding £477.68 £320.70

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