RM pension row: "Company showed no loyalty to employee"

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail pension row: grieving daughter says company showed no loyalty to employee

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/readin ... ng-9146556" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Daughter collects 25,000 signatures in online petition calling on Royal Mail to pay lump sum claimed by mother before her death

A daughter whose mother died last year has collected more than 25,000 signatures in a petition calling on Royal Mail to pay put a pension lump sum.

Sharon Hawkins said her mother’s application to cash in her pension fund arrived with Royal Mail on the day she died.

However Royal Mail said Barbara McVeigh had already claimed her pension for eight years before she died and, under the rules, could only cash in the pension during the first five years.

Mrs Hawkins, of Usk Road, Tilehurst said her mother died of pancreatic cancer aged 68 in September last year.

After Mrs McVeigh, of Tweed Court, Tilehurst , was diagnosed, she made a claim for her pension lump sum so her family could be taken care of.

She had worked for Royal Mail at the sorting office in Caversham Road, central Reading, for more than 20 years as a catering assistant in the restaurant.

Mrs Hawkins said in her online petition: “Now my mum is gone I haven’t been able to grieve. Instead, I have been battling Royal Mail for the pension she earned as a loyal employee for 20 years.

“My mum called Royal Mail for the remainder of her pension as soon as she was given the diagnosis, she was informed that all she had to do was send a letter in writing.”

Mrs Hawkins’s husband is disabled and the couple live on a small disability allowance.

She said: “My mum knew that I could barely afford the cost of her care - let alone funeral arrangements. She hoped the money could help during this difficult time.”

The funeral cost £4,600.

Mrs Hawkins has written to Moya Greene, chief executive officer at Royal Mail,and posted the petition online at Change.org

She said Royal Mail had “given a number of different reasons” for refusing to pay even a discretionary amount towards the funeral.

Mrs Hawkins said: “At this point she doesn’t even have a headstone because I can’t afford it. I feel she has been let down by the company that she dedicated years to. She was so loyal and they have shown no loyalty in return.”

Val Baldwin, spokeswoman for Royal Mail said: “We were saddened to hear of Mrs McVeigh’s passing in September 2014.

“Mrs McVeigh was a member of the Royal Mail statutory pension scheme. Under this scheme, a lump sum death benefit is only payable within the first five years after retirement.

“Mrs McVeigh retired in 2006 and had drawn her pension for eight years before she died. Therefore no death benefits were payable in 2014.

“As is the case with all pension schemes, benefits are payable to the pensioner and their spouse, both of whom are now deceased. Payments cannot be made to other members of the family, who are not financially dependent, after their death.

“A short time before her death last year, Mrs McVeigh asked whether she could ‘cash in’ or commute her pension. Mrs McVeigh’s daughter, Sharon Hawkins raised the same issue in later correspondence.

“The pension scheme administrators explained that this was not possible under current pensions legislation.

“These rules are defined by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

“We have contacted Mrs Hawkins again to explain the terms of the Royal Mail pension scheme, which are much the same as the rules governing every other pension scheme in the UK.”

[scoobymunster]

Sad story. Could RM make a discretionary payment or is pension issues that heavily regulated it's out of their hands?

[Lincox]

It is very sad, but the pension trustees can only operate within the rules and regulations of the scheme. They have a duty to the remaining pension members and would create a precedence if they started paying out discretionary payments outside of the rules. I am unaware that there is an option to commute any regular income benefits within the scheme to a lump sum once you have taken the lump sum on retirement. If this lady,s spouse had pre-deceased her then there would be no widow/widower benefits, and no benefits for dependant children over a certain age.