PO-14071
This site is now obsolete, as it deals only with the case against Scottish Widows. It was abandoned once it became clear that The Pensions Ombudsman was refusing to investigate, instead illegally forcing a pragmatic solutionin evident collusion with Scottish Widows. Please see my Personal Pension Fiasco for up-to-date details of both cases. |
Welcome to this website describing my attempts to encash two Scottish Widows Personal Pension Plans.
To encash my Pension Plans, Scottish Widows required a prolonged telephone interview, followed by the provision of several certified documents. They assert that these onerous "verification" demands are "required under UK legislation". The considerable difficulties in satisfying these requirements were compounded by dreadful and changing documentation of them.
I was unable to verify my address to their satisfaction, and my application was rejected and subsequently closed. This was despite their having had the best possible proof of my identity from the beginning. I allege that their "verification" demands have nothing to do with verification of identity, but are part of a fraudulent strategy to profit from reduced pension encashment.
There are many other issues with Scottish Widows. Other policies include forcing the communications medium on the customer (normally ordinary post, with telephone for things Scottish Widows wants to keep off the record). This included only postal replies to my emails, requiring postal responses within 14 days of the date of the letter, even after my clear statements that post between the UK and Mexico takes many weeks. They were also dishonest and evasive in handling my complaint, which is now with The Pensions Ombudsman.
If anyone has any experiences of this or related issues that they would like to share, please email me on the address given on the next page. The more people that are involved in this, the better the chances of defeating Scottish Widows' despicable policies.