Nest Pension Plan · CAS-88369-H4X8

CAS-88369-H4X8

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Ms G

Scheme NEST Pension Plan (the Plan)

Respondent Rock A Tots UK Ltd (the Employer)

Outcome

Complaint summary Ms G has complained that the Employer, despite deducting contributions from her pay, has failed to pay them into the Plan.

Ms G has said that the missing contributions amounted to £134.65.

Background information, including submissions from the parties In April 2019, Ms G was employed by the Employer.

Between December 2021 and March 2022, the Employer did not pay pension contributions deducted from Ms G’s salary into the Plan.

On 21 March 2022, Ms G checked her NEST account and first became aware of the missing pensions contributions.

On 22 March 2022, Ms G raised the issue with NEST who referred her to the Employer to file a complaint.

On 23 March 2022, Ms G raised a complaint with the Employer regarding the missing pensions contributions. Ms G did not receive a response.

On 25 March 2022 and 25 April 2022, Ms G received emails from NEST confirming it had reported the Employer to The Pensions Regulator (TPR).

1 CAS-88369-H4X8 On 23 May 2022, Ms G brought her complaint to The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO).

Ms G provided copies of the payslips that she held for the period from December 2021 to March 2022, which detailed the pension contributions deducted from her pay and the corresponding employer contributions. These deductions amounted to £134.65. A breakdown of the deductions has been included in the Appendix.

On 15 August 2022, TPO wrote to the Employer to ask for more information in response to Ms G’s complaint. This request was repeated on 31 August 2022. Neither of these requests received a response.

Caseworker’s Opinion

• The Caseworker 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 Ms G.

• The Caseworker said that he had no reason to doubt the information provided by Ms G. So, in the Caseworker’s Opinion, on the balance of probabilities, contributions had been deducted from Ms G’s salary, but had not been paid into the Plan. 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, Ms G was not in the financial position she ought to be in.

• In the Caseworker’s view, Ms G had suffered significant distress and inconvenience due to the Employer’s maladministration. The Caseworker was of the opinion that an award of £500 for non-financial injustice was appropriate in the circumstances.

Ombudsman’s decision

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Directions

(i) pay Ms G £500 for the significant distress and inconvenience she has experienced;

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

(iii) forward the Schedule to Ms G.

(i) pay the missing contributions to the Plan;

(ii) establish with the Plan whether the late payment of contributions has meant that fewer units were purchased in Ms G’s Plan account than she 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.

3 CAS-88369-H4X8 Within 14 days of receiving confirmation from NEST of any shortfall in Ms G’s units, pay the cost of purchasing any additional units required to make up the shortfall.

Anthony Arter CBE

Deputy Pensions Ombudsman 26 January 2023

4 CAS-88369-H4X8 Appendix Date Employee contributions Employer contributions

31/12/2021 £20.99 £15.74

31/01/2022 £22.33 £16.74

28/02/2022 £18.85 £14.14

31/03/2022 £14.78 £11.08

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