Scottish Widows · CAS-43898-H7L9

CAS-43898-H7L9

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Ms T

Scheme Scottish Widows (the Scheme)

Respondent Cambridge Radio Limited (the Employer)

Outcome

Complaint summary

Background information, including submissions from the parties

1 CAS-43898-H7L9

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. Although the Employer accepted that pension contributions remained outstanding, it did not provide a detailed schedule of what was owed. So, the Caseworker had to base his Opinion solely on the information provided by Ms T.

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

• In the Caseworker’s view, Ms T had suffered serious distress and inconvenience due to the Employer’s maladministration. The Caseworker was of the opinion that an award of £1,000 for non-financial injustice was appropriate in the circumstances.

2 CAS-43898-H7L9 Ombudsman’s decision

Directions

(i) pay Ms T £1,000 for the serious distress and inconvenience she has experienced;

(ii) produce a schedule (the Schedule) showing the employee contributions deducted from Ms T’s pay in respect of the period of her employment. The Schedule shall also include the corresponding employer contributions that were due to the Scheme; and

(iii) forward the Schedule to Ms T.

(i) pay the missing contributions to the Scheme;

(ii) establish with the Scheme whether the late payment of contributions has meant that fewer units were purchased in Ms T’s Scheme account than she would have otherwise secured, had the contributions been paid on time; and

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

3 CAS-43898-H7L9 Within 14 days of receiving confirmation from Scottish Widows of any shortfall in Ms T’s units, pay the cost of purchasing any additional units required to make up the shortfall.

Anthony Arter CBE

Deputy Pensions Ombudsman 27 January 2023

4 CAS-43898-H7L9 Appendix Date Employee contributions Employer contributions

January 2017 £13.33 £16.67

February 2017 £13.33 £16.67

March 2017 £13.33 £16.67

April 2017 £13.33 £16.67

May 2017 £13.33 £16.67

June 2017 £13.33 £16.67

July 2017 £13.33 £16.67

August 2017 £13.33 £16.67

September 2017 £13.33 £16.67

October 2017 £13.33 £16.67

November 2017 £13.33 £16.67

December 2017 £13.33 £16.67

January 2018 £13.33 £16.67

February 2018 £13.33 £16.67

March 2018 £13.33 £16.67

April 2018 £13.33 £16.67

May 2018 £40.00 £33.33

June 2018 £40.00 £33.33

July 2018 £40.00 £33.33

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