We want to keep you up-to-date about how Mercer (formerly JLT Employee Benefits), who administer your MNOPF pension, is dealing with the challenges of Coronavirus.
What is Mercer doing?
Like all similar organisations, the Mercer administration teams are now primarily working remotely in line with legislation and Government guidance. With some increased levels of absence, Mercer are also prioritising the most important services for pension scheme members - these are payments to pensioners, bereavements and making payments to members retiring or transferring their benefits from their pension scheme.
What does this mean for members?
These changes may mean that members may wait longer before receiving a reply to requests. There is a delicate balance between the safety and security of staff with the need to make sure that pension scheme members receive the money they are due as a matter of priority.
To help Mercer be as efficient as possible when responding to enquiries:
- Please only contact Mercer if your question is urgent so they can prioritise the critical tasks of providing payments to members that are due them.
- You can call Mercer in the normal way on 01372 200 200
- You can also email Mercer in the normal way at enquiries@myMNOPFpension.co.uk
- Please do not write letters to Mercer - we expect letters will start taking longer to be received and longer to process.
- On any correspondence, if you have an email address please let us know what that is. Email will be the most efficient way for Mercer to respond to you.
If you have an urgent question, have not received a payment that you were due or would regard yourself as a vulnerable customer, please do contact Mercer who will try to resolve any issues as quickly as possible.
Please continue to be safe!
We are aware of reports of new pension scams specifically relating to COVID-19. These are trying to take advantage of pension scheme members in a time of potential stress. These scams are trying to take all your pensions savings away from you.
You should be extremely wary of any approaches about your pension savings that are unexpected. These could be from a variety of sources (telephone calls, email or text) and could even pretend to be from legitimate sources (such as HMRC).
If you are concerned about scams, please click on the link below to give you more information:
https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/pension-scams
Rory Murphy
Chair of MNOPF Trustees.