Scottish Widows gave my ex

At 58 years-old, Eddie Buglass had been drawing down on his Scottish Widows pension on an irregular basis for two years. 

Originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, he had relocated to the Hague in the Netherlands and was working at Swedish furniture giant Ikea.

Last May he asked for another £8,000 to be paid out to his bank account to go towards an investment.

But what should have been a simple transaction turned into a situation that, for many divorcees, would be a total nightmare.

The father of three initially received confirmation from Scottish Widows that the payment would be made within two weeks. However, unlike previously, the money never showed up in his account.

Latest blunder: Scottish Widows sent £8,000 from a customer's pension to his ex-wife after failing to cancel an old joint account (file picture)

Eddie called Scottish Widows repeatedly but was told the transfer had been made — and despite telling them he had not received it, he could not find out what had happened.

During one phone call, a staff member told Eddie that the money had been sent to one of his accounts. He says: 'That's when it clicked. I realised that the money might have gone into my ex-wife's account.'

The account in question was a joint bank account Eddie and his then wife had used while they were married. Following the split, she kept sole control of the account and his name was removed.

The account had previously been registered on Eddie's Scottish Widows profile. He had asked for it to be removed long before this transfer, but perhaps it had not been.

A spokesman at the company says its records 'did not hold any instruction sent from Mr Buglass to confirm that the joint account now was in the sole name of his ex-wife'.

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Exasperated by the lack of assistance from Scottish Widows, Eddie took matters into his own hands and called his former partner. 'It's lucky we are on good terms as it meant I could just call her to ask if she had received any unusual payments,' he says.

'She happened to be cashing in a number of her own pension pots at the same time so she had money coming in left right and centre.

'When she saw it, she originally thought it was one of her pensions, but after I explained what had happened she realised it was mine.'

Eddie's ex-wife confirmed she had received the money eight weeks after he instructed the payment to be made.

She agreed to transfer it directly into Eddie's account, which he received at the end of July — almost three months after he first requested the money.

Eddie acknowledges the mix-up could easily have turned into a drawn-out battle had they not been on good terms. 'She could have denied it or run away and gone on holiday with it,' he adds. Martyn James, a leading consumer rights champion, says: 'This is a major error from Scottish Widows and could easily have got messy. It absolutely should never have happened.'

Mr James identified several major mistakes in the way Scottish widows acted, all of which had high potential to create complications.

The first error — making the payment to the wrong account — should not have happened as the name on the Scottish Widows policy and the name on the recipient bank account did not match.

Sloppy widows: Customers have been caught up in a series of disastrous data breaches at Scottish Widows that have exposed their personal details and left their savings at risk

The second mistake was failing to track down the money itself, Mr James says. 'There should have been no reason for Eddie to have had to contact his ex-wife at any point,' he says. 'It should not have become his problem. Scottish Widows knew where the money had gone and should have asked the receiving bank to return it.'

Scottish Widows should also have made a second payment to transfer the full amount to Eddie's bank account while they tried to recover the incorrect transaction, Mr James adds.

By sending £8,000 to Eddie's ex-wife's account, the payment gives her the information that he does have a pension with them and has a certain amount in it. 

With this information, she could, for example, have said that Eddie had promised her that money in the divorce and it was outstanding, so she wanted to keep it.

'In that case it can be difficult for the company to recall the money and it would have been a court issue, which in itself is a nightmare,' he says.

Scottish Widows could also have become liable for the court fees.

Mr James adds: 'If she turned around and said you told me you had no money and I'm suing you, the company could find itself liable.'

Similarly, the former partner could claim that her confidentiality has been breached as Eddie now has her banking information and knows that she still uses that account, he says. 'It all gets very complicated and messy.'

Eddie has received £633.13 from Scottish Widows in compensation to acknowledge the initial error and the time taken to put it right, as well as to cover the international call costs and interest.

A spokesman for Scottish Widows says: 'We're sorry that Mr Buglass's withdrawal request was paid into a previous account of his in error and could have been sorted immediately if we'd gone over the details more clearly the first time that we spoke to him.

'We made a payment in October to acknowledge the time it took to get to the bottom of it, which he accepted, and have updated his details.'

Last week, Money Mail revealed that customers have been caught up in a series of disastrous data breaches at Scottish Widows that have exposed customers' personal details and left their savings at risk.

In the worst case seen by this newspaper, a reader's pension was stolen after Scottish Widows sent all the details necessary to cash it in to a stranger.

Mark Radin, who has helped hundreds of frustrated Scottish Widows customers deal with their complaints via a Facebook group he set up, called Scottish Widows Complaint Platform, says Eddie's case is symptomatic of its customer service woes.

'Scottish Widows' sloppiness in managing the pension of Mr Buglass is all too common and extremely concerning,' he says.

'I strongly encourage all investors with Scottish Widows to monitor their pension fund transactions and growth.'

Scottish Widows said it would not respond to this particular case but a spokesman said: 'We take our data protection responsibilities seriously and are sorry that in the individual cases raised by Money Mail we shared some information with the wrong customers by mistake. We are working hard behind the scenes to ensure this won't happen again.'

How your ex's credit score can impact your own rating 

Hundreds of thousands of divorcees are unknowingly still linked to their ex's financial decisions — and will be for life unless they fill in a simple form.

More than 233,000 people divorced in the past five years are still being measured against their former spouse's credit rating when making financial decisions, research reveals. 

Price comparison site MoneySuperMarket reports that three in four divorcees say their ex-partner's credit history has impacted their credit score.

It's because taking out shared finance with someone makes you 'financial associates', according to Kara Gammell, an expert from MoneySuperMarket.

This means you will still be linked to your ex, and their credit history will show up on your report, unless you 'financially dissociate'. 

To do this, you must manually request for your financial associate to be removed. 

You will have to fill in a form with credit reference agencies such as Experian or Equifax, which will ask for your personal details and the name of the person you want to dissociate from, plus the nature of your relationship and any financial links.

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