The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) has upheld a complaint against Town Wall Tavern Ltd and directed that it should pay £1,000 for the “serious distress and inconvenience” it has caused.

In the ruling, the complainant, Mr N, alleged that Town Wall Tavern had failed to pay contributions into the Nest scheme, despite deducting them from Mr N’s pay, with a total of £2,093.95 in missing contributions.

Mr N detailed that, whilst his contributions were paid into the scheme for the months of September, October and November 2019, no other contributions were made for the remaining period of his employment with Town Wall Tavern, which ended in July 2021.

On 24 September 2021, Mr N raised a complaint with Town Wall Tavern regarding the unpaid pension contribution, but no response was received and the complaint was subsequently brought to TPO on 9 December.

On 26 September 2022, TPO asked Town Wall Tavern for its response to Mr N’s complaint, a request that was repeated on 10 October 2022, although neither requests received a response.

In reaching its decision, the caseworker stated that it is TPO’s normal approach is to seek agreement from all parties on the facts of the complaint, including the dates and amounts of contributions involved but, as Town Wall Tavern had not responded to any of TPO’s communications, she had to base her opinion solely on the information provided by Mr N, ruling in favour of the complainant.

The ombudsman agreed with the caseworker’s opinion and ruled that Town Wall Tavern’s failure to pay employee and employer contributions into the scheme amounted to “unjust enrichment” and caused Mr N to suffer a financial loss.

To put matters right, TPO directed that Town Wall Tavern should, within 28 days of the ruling, pay Mr N £1,000 for the serious distress and inconvenience he has experienced, produce a schedule showing employee contributions deducted from Mr N and forward the schedule to Mr N.

TPO additionally directed that, within 14 days of receiving a request by Mr N, Town Wall Tavern shall provide him with any reasonable additional information, in order for him to be able to check the details in the schedule.

Town Wall Tavern was also directed to, within 14 days of receiving confirmation from Mr N that he agrees with the information on the schedule, pay the missing contributions into the scheme, establish with the scheme administrator, Nest, whether the late payment of contributions has meant fewer units were purchased in Mr N’s scheme account.

It was also directed to pay any reasonable administration fee Nest should charge a fee for carrying out the above calculation.

TPO additionally directed that, within 14 days of receiving confirmation from Nest of any shortfall in Mr N’s units, pay the cost of purchasing any additional units required to make up the shortfall.

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