Local Government Pension Scheme · CAS-47820-W7N7

CAS-47820-W7N7

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Mr L

Scheme Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)

Respondents Hull City Council (the Council) East Riding of Yorkshire Council (the Administering Authority)

Outcome

Complaint summary

Background information, including submissions from the parties Mr L began employment with the Council in June 2001. He previously accrued pension benefits in the Tyne & Wear Pension Fund (T&W Fund), between 1988 and 2001.

On becoming a Council employee Mr L elected to join the East Riding Pension Fund (the Fund) and transfer his previously accrued pension benefits from the T&W Fund to the Fund.

On 1 November 2001, the Administering Authority wrote to Mr L to provide details of the level of benefits he would receive if he wanted to proceed with the transfer. The Administering Authority provided Mr L with a notice of election form (the Election Form). The notes on the Election Form said:

“If you do not reply within one month of the date of this letter, I will assume that you do not wish to link your past and present periods of membership at the moment.”

1 CAS-47820-W7N7

2 CAS-47820-W7N7

Adjudicator’s Opinion

3 CAS-47820-W7N7

Mr L did not accept the Adjudicator’s Opinion and in response, he said in summary:-

• Following his instruction in 2001, the Council should have transferred his LGPS benefits from T&W fund to the Fund for the same reasons he had previously said.

• He was made redundant in October 2017, on his 56th birthday. The result of the Council’s failure to transfer his benefits meant that he could not claim his full pension forthwith. He had to either wait four years or accept a reduction of 24% in respect of his benefits with the T&W Fund. He has therefore suffered a financial loss of either: (i) £43,880 if he waited until the age of 60; or £2,633 per annum for life.

• He has been retired for over four and a half years and is still unable to claim his pension. Also, he is unable to determine the lump sum element of benefits until he has accurate figures for his pension entitlement. 4 CAS-47820-W7N7 • The Council clearly informed him that he could transfer at any time during his employment. It subsequently did not inform him when this position had changed. In fact, it had provided him with incorrect and misleading information.

• The Council is in the unique position of being able to remedy his position by using its discretion to allow the transfer.

• The Council was the only organisation that knew he had both a previous and current LGPS pension benefits. How would T&W Fund know which of its former employees had gone on to another employer offering LGPS benefits.

• He cannot find evidence that the Council provided him with information regarding the change in the transfer regulations.

• He referred to the time when he was being made redundant. He was not happy with the way the Council had dealt with his redundancy by not offering representation or consulting with him in any meaningful way. It was not able to send him a copy of his employment contract.

• He is unhappy that it appears to be entirely his responsibility to communicate, request, follow up, and check accuracy of provided information without any onus on the Council to do the same.

As Mr L did not accept the Adjudicator’s Opinion, the complaint was passed to me to consider. Mr L provided his additional comments which do not change the outcome. I agree with the Adjudicator’s Opinion and note the additional points raised by Mr L.

Ombudsman’s decision As has been explained in Paragraph 3 above, I can only consider the decision made in 2017 not to exercise discretion to allow Mr L to transfer his benefits held under the T&W Fund to the Fund.

Mr L is unhappy with the decision not to apply discretion to allow him to transfer his deferred benefits into the Fund, following the expiration of the 12-month transfer window.

The Regulations applicable at the time of this decision are The Local Government Pension Fund Regulations 2013. The relevant Regulation is set out in Appendix A.

5 CAS-47820-W7N7

Mr L has referred to the inability for him to be able to claim his full pension benefit at the time when he was made redundant, as a result of his inability to transfer his benefits. However, I find that this was not due to any maladministration on the part of the Council.

I do not uphold Mr L’s complaint.

Anthony Arter

Pensions Ombudsman 15 June 2022

6 CAS-47820-W7N7 Appendix A The Local Government Pension Fund Regulations 2013

Inward transfers of pension rights

“100.—(1) An active member with relevant pension rights may request the appropriate administering authority to accept a transfer value for some or all of those rights from the relevant transferor.

(2) Relevant pension rights are—

(a) accrued rights under a registered pension scheme other than rights to benefits under the scheme which are attributable (directly or indirectly) to a pension credit; and

(b) accrued rights under a European pensions institution.

(3) Accrued rights under a registered pension scheme include rights to preserved benefits and rights appropriately secured under section 19 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993(1).

(4) The relevant transferor is the trustees or managers of the scheme under which the transferring person’s relevant pension rights arise.

(5) But the relevant transferor for the rights specified in paragraph (3) is the trustees and managers of the scheme, or the insurance company, to which a payment in respect of the person’s accrued rights has been made.

(6) A request from a transferring person under paragraph (1) must be made by notice in writing given to the appropriate administering authority and the Scheme employer before the expiry of the period of 12 months beginning with the date on which the person first became an active member in an employment (or such longer period as the Scheme employer and administering authority may allow).

(7) Where a request under paragraph (1) is duly made, the administering authority may accept the transfer value and credit it to its pension fund.”

7 CAS-47820-W7N7 Appendix B The Occupational Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 1996

Regulation 4 - Basic information about the Scheme

“(4) Where different information is applicable to different members, prospective members and beneficiaries, nothing in this regulation shall be construed as requiring the trustees to disclose information in relation to a member, prospective member or beneficiary that is not relevant to that person’s rights or prospective rights under the scheme, or, where disclosure is made to a trade union, of any matter which is not relevant to the rights or prospective rights of members or prospective members who are of a class of employee in relation to which the trade union is a recognised trade union for the purposes of collective bargaining.”

8