I had three pensions with Aviva worth £140,607 that I wanted to transfer to investment firm Vanguard.
I made the request on November 27 last year, as I wanted the money in my Vanguard account in good time by April 5, 2025, so I could have some income from it in that tax year.
However, this was not possible because Aviva delayed transferring them. Please can you help? G.W., Maidstone, Kent.
Delays: A Daily Mail reader endured significant pension transfer delays
Sally Hamilton replies: When you asked to transfer your pensions from Aviva, Vanguard suggested it would take around four to eight weeks.
This gave you plenty of breathing space – or so you thought – to get the transaction done, so you could take an income from the transferred pot before the tax year ended.
But it wasn’t until April 2 – with just three days left of the last tax year – that Aviva finally told you by letter that the payment had been issued, including £2,638 in late interest.
You checked your Aviva account online and found it was indeed closed, with no funds remaining. But to your frustration it had not reached Vanguard.
The delays continued. Two weeks (and nine chasing phone calls to Aviva customer service) later, Aviva revealed that the payment couldn’t be made as the bank had not authorised it.
It gave no explanation but told you not to worry as it would go through in a couple of days.
It didn’t.
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Your blood pressure climbed when staff said it would take four weeks to investigate your complaint.
After four weeks your frustration was off the charts, when they told you they were still looking into it and asked you to allow them another four weeks.
All this time you had neither access to your pension – and nor was it invested.
Every time you tried to speak to someone with authority, you ended going round in circles, with calls either not returned – or missed – and when you called back, the manager who had left you a message wasn’t known to the call handler.
It was time for me to give Aviva a serious prod. Within a few days Aviva finally got a grip on your case and your money landed with Vanguard a few days later.
Details were not given of what exactly went wrong except the company admitted a blunder.
A spokesman says: ‘We are extremely sorry for the delay in transferring Mr W’s pensions, and the distress this has caused him.
‘This was due to an error on our part. I can confirm that the full payment has now been transferred and received by Vanguard.’
Last week, Aviva finally completed a loss assessment after liaising with Vanguard.
This took several weeks of to-ing and fro-ing between it and Vanguard.
In the end, taking into account late and lost interest, plus potential tax liability faced by you for taking the money in the current tax year rather than last year as planned, plus £750 as an apology, you have received total recompense of £8,096.
Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
