Why does Mercer keep stonewalling over its payouts?

Ms A.G. writes: I retired in August after working at Morrisons for 16 years, and a month earlier I applied to Mercer, the company that administers the Morrisons pension scheme, to say that I wanted my small pension pot as a lump sum. I expected the money when I retired, but I have received nothing.

YOU told me you emailed Mercer, but only got back an automated reply saying someone would contact you. And when you threatened to go to the Pensions Ombudsman, Mercer replied that it would pay you in a few weeks. As you said to me: ‘If I still worked for Morrisons and did not get paid on time, this would be unacceptable, so why should this conduct by Mercer be any different?’ It’s a good question, but there is no answer. When I contacted Mercer, it replied a fortnight later, saying you had now been paid.

Why was there a delay? Mercer stonewalled: ‘In line with company procedures, we do not comment on individual members.’ Mercer then refused to comment on why it refused to comment. It had your signed consent, allowing it to speak to me, but opted to ignore it.

Despite being a major pensions company, Mercer has form for this. Last March, I reported that it withheld a widow’s pension, demanding that she repay £208 it claimed it overpaid her late husband.

Getting information from Mercer was like extracting teeth from an unhappy crocodile, until the firm finally confessed the £208 had never been paid in the first place. If my work pension was in Mercer’s hands, I think I would change jobs.