I’ve been waiting over a year for my pension lump sum

in October exactly the same forms landed on your doormat again, and again they were meant for the trustees.

The final straw before you contacted me came when you called Phoenix three times, and each time you were told that the person handling your claim was on another call and would get back to you.

He never did, and when you called for a fourth time you were told he had gone off on a training course for two months and would contact you on his return.

I contacted Phoenix on your behalf and, four days later, £23,391 landed in your bank account. This was both your overdue payments, less income tax deducted at source.

Phoenix initially offered £200 by way of an apology, and £20 to cover all your calls and any other costs.

This was pathetic. It did not even scratch the surface of what you could reasonably expect, and I said so. Phoenix has reconsidered. It has now paid you £1,652 as interest on the late payments, with a further £1,025 as compensation for the upset.

But adding a final rather bizarre twist to all this, you received one last letter from Phoenix, thanking you for your recent request to change your name. You told me you had held the same name since you got married 56 years ago, and you have no intention of changing it now. Phoenix explained to me that it had just spotted that its records had never noted your middle name, so the records had been changed, but you should never have been contacted or bothered about this.

A spokesperson told me: ‘It is clear from the findings of our investigation that the service we have provided to Ms S has fallen considerably short of what she should expect, especially at a time when she needed our help, and we are very sorry for the upset and distress this has caused her at an extremely difficult time.’