Overpaid final salary pension – what do I do?

[BaconMacon]

Hi guys

Someone in my family just received a letter saying that their final salary pension has been overpaid. It says they want to reduce their pension to the correct level going forwards (which is okay), but also “recoup” the historic overpayments by reducing my future pension payments until it’s been repaid. I don’t think that’s fair - what do we do?

Really grateful for any advice.

What has your pension got to do with theirs?

Why can't they just refund the overpayment?
Why involve a 3rd party?

Would it be fair if they’d underpaid your pension and refused to back date the correct amount?

Surely this is the same as if you get overpaid at work.

You have to pay the extra money back, usually by being underpaid for a few months.

Eh ???

I don't understand what your pension has to do with someone else's? Or is it your pension that has been overpaid?

They can't reduce your payments when an overpayment was made to someone else. Your payments are yours, nothing to do with another family member.

The person who received the overpayment has to repay it. Obviously. Not sure how it involves anyone else, tbh.
If the excess amount has all been spent, the pensioner will have to negotiate a repayment schedule with the company.

I think you may need some specialist advice if your family member is in receipt of an annuity which has been calculated wrong. Certainly they should not agree to anything and ask for evidence/proof of the error so they may consider next steps.

“Their pension”. “My pension”. 🤔

I would say get advice from citizens advice bureau.

My mum had similar and was overpaid her teachers pension. I believe they can claim stuff back but only from the last 6 years, anything older they had to write off. I'm not sure if that's just teachers pension or if it's still the same.

Anyway mum wasn't happy with it and appealed and appealed, said it was their fault, she wasn't going to be put into poverty due to their mistake. Her appeal won and she never had to pay anything back.

I just googled as I know it was in the press as mum wasn't the only one. Overpayment woes at Teachers’ Pension Scheme continue - FTAdviser

Obviously yours may not be a teachers pension but some points might help? Also it looks like there's a pension ombudsman you can complain to.

This comes up reasonably often with final salary schemes and there is usually trustee discretion around whether past over payments are recovered or not - usually depending on the facts of the case such as whether the member could have reasonably known the pension was overpaid, how long it has been overpaid for and the level of overpayment. The trustees will be balancing the fairness of asking for the overpayment back vs the fairness on other members in the scheme. Usually, keeping current pension payments at a fixed or lower level for a defined period is considered a fairer way of reclaiming the overpayment as opposed to asking the pensioner to pay back a lump sum.

Sorry guys, I do mean their pension not mine. Have reposted this thread: Overpaid final salary pension - what do we do? | Mumsnet

Sorry for confusion - all responses so far appreciated!