Just got letter back from my UK pension scheme in regards to my transfer request

"I regret that I am unable to reply fully at present because it is necessary to obtain figures concerning the Guaranteed Minimum Pension from the the HMRC`s National Insurance Contribution Office (NICO) before a transfer value quote can be calculated. This usually takes up to 8 weeks to provide information.

Also, as you may or may not be aware, in the UK Emergency Budget on 22 June 2010, the Chancellor announced that the uprating of the majority of state benefits and the State Second Pension (S2P will be changed from the Retail Price Index (RPI) to the Consumers Price Index (CPI) with affect from April 2011

The impact of CPI uprating in respect of Public Sector factors is under active consideration, with effect from 6 July 2010 the current basis for calculating Cash Equivalent Transfer Values (CETV) has been suspended by the Home Office until CPI issues have been worked through and a new basis is agreed.

The Home Office are currently liaising with HM Treasury and the Governments Actuary`s Department (GAD) to agree the basis for CETV calculations; therefore we are currently unable to provide you with the requested information".

My thoughts were What a Load Of Bollocks (LOB) sounds like a "we need more money to pay for our cock ups running the country" I want my transfer valuation now not 5 years time when they have finished discussing the CPI issues.

Has anyone else had any problems obtaining CETV`s.

I used to work on transfer values in the public sector. What you have is a standard reply to transfer value request from the public sector ( i.e the gmp part). The Guaranteed minimum pension figure is one of the pension elements used to work out CETV and can sometimes take up to 8 weeks to obtain. In my experience though it is usually available in about four weeks from the date of request.

As for the CETV review, this may take sometime to complete but this should only be a matter of months, surely not years.

Thanks Discovery for your optimism, I must admit when I said 5 years I was being sarcastic but knowing how long the wheel of Justice takes to turn, I will not hold my breath for too long

Not so much problems with these issues, but with another one re protected rights that I won't bore you with. However in the regular discussion I have had with my pensions advisor in the uk, he mentioned that the NHS and some other bodies had all but stopped providing CETV's until the valuation basis is finalised, and that the new basis will result in a lesser valuation than available before they changed this.

Exactly how they can get away with this I don't know! The new basis is supposed to be coming in from April next year so it should be back to normal then.

Having read the consultation paper, it appears that they introduced this proposal for a revised valuation method without any consultation with the industry in August, then thought they'd better consult, and propose the changes from April but in the meantime anyone that wants to transfer is stuffed. The likelihood of it changing is somewhat tiny.

I am in a fully funded public sector scheme (ie it is paid for from member contibutions and not general taxation) so not officially covered by the changes but do not know whether my soon to be revised request for a CETV will be processed or not.

Bloody pain in the neck really !

Scotty