The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) has upheld a complaint against Guardian Industrial UK, ordering the employer to pay the complainant £1,000 for the serious distress and inconvenience it caused her.

The complainant, Mrs E, said that her employer failed to pay her pension contributions into the scheme, despite deducting them from her pay.

According to the complaint, Mrs E, who began her employment with the company in March 2021, first became aware of the problems with her employer not paying pension contributions into the scheme in October 2021.

In November 2023, after ceasing employment with the company, Mrs E complained that not all contributions had been paid into the scheme, before bringing her complaint to TPO in December 2023.

She provided evidence that showed that the employer made late pension contributions into the scheme on four occasions for the contributions covering March 2021 to September 2021.

Then, for the months October 2021 and November 2021, the employer failed to make the required pension contributions into the scheme until 30 May 2022 and 29 June 2022.

In addition to this, the employer failed to make any pension contributions into the scheme between December 2021 and October 2023.

The pension contributions outstanding for Mrs E for the period December 2021 to October 2023 totalled £744.21 in employee contributions and £446.53 in employer contributions, making a total £1,190.74.

The employer's response to TPO suggested that the dispute concerning Mrs E’s pension contributions had been resolved through a separate settlement.

The company said that Mrs E had been involved in the calculation of other staff members' redundancy packages which included outstanding pension contributions, and that she had included her own outstanding contributions when arranging a final payment when her employment ended.

However, TPO was able to provide the employer with a copy of the evidence that confirmed that the pension contributions dispute had not been included in an earlier settlement.

TPO also provided the employer with a summary of the payments made into the scheme for Mrs E, together with the employee and employer contributions that had not been paid. TPO did not receive a response from the employer.

After the employer also failed to respond to the adjudicator’s opinion, the complaint was upheld by then-deputy pensions ombudsman, Anthony Arter.

"The employer’s failure to pay employee and employer contributions into the scheme amounts to unjust enrichment and has caused Mrs E to suffer a financial loss," Arter concluded.

Given this, he ordered the employer to pay Mrs E £1,000 for the "serious distress and inconvenience" experienced, suggesting that this was "exacerbated" by the employer’s continuing failure to resolve the dispute during TPO’s investigation into the complaint.

In addition to this, the employer was directed to pay £1,190.74 into Mrs E’s scheme account.

The company was also ordered to establish whether the late payment of contributions has meant that fewer units were purchased in Mrs E’s account than she would have otherwise secured, had the contributions been paid on time, and pay the cost of purchasing any additional units required to make up the shortfall into Mrs E’s pension pot.

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