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Lloyds Bank Pension Scheme No 2 (PO-16883)

Complainant: Mr G
Complaint Topic: Benefits: incorrect calculation
Ref: PO-16883
Outcome: Partly upheld
Respondent: 1. Lloyds Banking Group Pensions Trustees Limited
2. Lloyds Bank Plc
3. Willis Towers Watson
Type: Pension complaint or dispute
Date:

Ombudsman’s Determination

Complaint Summary

Mr G’s complaint is that the Employer and Trustee have calculated his pension benefits incorrectly; Mr G seeks their recalculation from 2015 to date. Mr G says that the Employer and the Trustee have incorrectly applied a pension cap of £36,000 to both his basic salary and bonuses, rather than applying the pension cap to his bonuses only. The effect of this approach is that his bonuses have been excluded from the calculation of his pension benefits. He believes he is contractually entitled to have his bonuses included in the calculation of his pensionable pay. Alternatively, if it is not accepted that he is contractually so entitled, the bonuses should in any event be included, as he has been told, over many years, that this would be done. He also says that the Employer has applied the pension cap in a discriminatory way.

Mr G’s complaint against the Administrator is that it provided him with incorrect benefit statements and failed to provide him with particular information that he requested in 2014.

Summary of Ombudsman’s Determination and reasons

The complaint against the Employer is upheld in part. There is no evidence that it has incorrectly applied the pension cap to Mr G’s pensionable pay, or that it provided him with incorrect information in circumstances that entitle him to a recalculation of his benefits. Nor is there evidence that the Employer applied the pension cap in a discriminatory manner. However, the Employer did fail to provide Mr G with prompt information regarding the concerns he raised, which amounts to maladministration. Its maladministration caused Mr G serious distress and inconvenience over a number of years, for which the Employer shall pay Mr G £1,000 in recognition of the distress and inconvenience which he has suffered.

There is no finding of maladministration against the Trustee or the Administrator; the complaint against the Trustee and the Administrator is not upheld.

 

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