Why I would NEVER entrust Mercer to run my pension scheme

Ms G.L. writes: Mercer needs looking into. A letter from the company, dated August 24, informed me that almost £10,000 from the commutation of my pension savings would be paid on October 1. There is still no sign of the money, despite many calls to Mercer. I just keep getting the runaround. I am sure I am not alone. Why is it keeping my money?

MERCER may be a global giant in the pensions world, with 14 offices in the UK alone, but if you work for a company that lets Mercer run its pension scheme, you may find that it is a Big Unfriendly Giant.

You contacted me after my report in mid-October about a Morrisons employee who retired and had to struggle to get Mercer to part with her pension money. Before that, I reported last March how Mercer refused to pay a widow the company pension to which she was fully entitled, unless she first handed over £208 it claimed it had overpaid her late husband.

Mercer fought long and hard to conceal the truth, which was that the £208 had never been paid. It was extorting money from the widow falsely, by holding back her own pension.

You worked for Whitbread, another household name business that lets Mercer run its pension scheme. Your pension pot is only worth £9,879, which means it is small enough to let you take the lot in cash, rather than collect a tiny pension every month. But what happened when you retired and it was time for Mercer to pay up? You were told to expect your money on October 1, but it did not arrive. In October, you called Mercer and were told payment was ‘pending’. Again, the money did not arrive. On November 1, you contacted Mercer again and you were told a letter was waiting to be checked. Checked for what, and by whom? Who knows? But this time you were told to expect payment around November 10. Again, Mercer failed to pay up.

I asked Mercer to explain why you had not been paid, and why it had told you to expect your money on certain dates, only to let you down time and again. Is Mercer short of money? Is this simply bad administration? Is Mercer sitting on cash it should be paying to lots of pensioners, so it can squeeze an extra month or two of interest out of other people’s money?

Mercer refuses to say. Even though you and the other Mercer victims whose complaints I have investigated gave their signed, legally binding authority to allow Mercer to speak to me without breaching confidentiality or data protection, the giant’s mouth stayed shut when I asked what were clearly awkward questions.

All it would say last Wednesday was this: ‘As per our company policy, we do not comment on individual member or client matters. However, we can confirm that Mrs L has been contacted by the team and her lump sum is scheduled to be paid on December 1.’

Would this be the same team that told you your money would land on October 1? And then again on November 10? Why were you not paid then? Mercer refused to answer.

Last month, I wrote that if my work pension was in Mercer’s hands, I think I would change jobs. Let me go further now. If I was running a company with a pension scheme, then for the sake of my employees, I would not entrust that scheme to Mercer.