Can I complain?
Can I complain?
We can help with a complaint or dispute about an occupational or personal pension scheme if you are:
- a member of a scheme or think you should be
- a beneficiary - entitled to benefits from someone else’s pension scheme, for example, following a divorce or the death of a member
- an employer participating in a scheme
- a trustee or manager of a scheme.
We can also help if you have a complaint about a decision made by the Pension Protection Fund or the Financial Assistance Scheme.
What should I do first?
First, you should give the party you think is at fault a chance to put things right. If you are unhappy with their reply or they do not respond within eight weeks, you can submit an application to us. We will then be able to consider how best we can help. Please read our factsheet ‘Complaining to the party/parties at fault’ for more information.
You also need to check if you are within time to bring a complaint to us. See our FAQ Is there a time limit on bringing a complaint to you?
Usually, you need to contact us within three years of the event you are complaining about happening or within three years of when you first knew about it (or should have known about it). Sometimes, this time limit can be extended.
We can help if you:
- are, or were, a member of the pension scheme
- think you should be a member of the pension scheme
- are a beneficiary - this means you believe you are entitled to benefits from someone else’s pension scheme, for example, following a divorce or the death of a member.
A ‘member’ is anyone who has joined a pension scheme and is entitled to payments from it now, or in the future.
Things we CAN look at
We can look at complaints about the way personal and occupational pension schemes are run. You can complain to us about the employer, trustee, manager or administrator of the scheme. We can look at things like:
- taking too long to do something without good reason
- failing to do something they should have
- not following their own rules or the law
- breaking a promise
- giving incorrect or misleading information
- not making a decision in the right way.
Things we CANNOT look at
There are some things that we cannot look at, including:
- complaints about State Pensions
- tracing a lost pension
- sales or marketing (mis-selling) of pensions
- where a decision has been made by a tribunal, court or another Ombudsman.
If you are unsure about whether we can investigate your complaint, please contact us.
If there are a number of you who have the same problem with the same scheme, this is called a group complaint. Find out how we deal with these in the section on ‘what to expect.’
If you are an employer participating in a scheme, you can ask us to investigate if you think there is a problem with the way a pension scheme is run.
We can also look at a dispute of fact or law between you and the other people who run the pension scheme.
If you ask us to investigate a complaint or dispute you will not need to show that injustice has occurred.
Things we CAN look at if you are an employer, include:
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a complaint you may have about the trustees or the managers of the same scheme.
Things we CANNOT look at if you are an employer, include:
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a dispute against the administrators of the same pension scheme.
If you are unsure about whether we can investigate your complaint, please contact us.
If you are a trustee or manager of a pension scheme, you can ask us to investigate if you think there is a problem with the way a pension scheme is run.
We can also look at a dispute of fact or law between you and the other people who run the pension scheme.
Things we CAN look at if you are a trustee or manager
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a complaint you may have about the employer of the same scheme
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a complaint that involves the trustees or managers of a different pension scheme
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a dispute between the trustees of the same pension scheme where at least 50% of the trustees refer the complaint to us
If you are a sole trustee with a question regarding the discharge of your role as trustee, please contact us.
Things we CANNOT look at if you are a trustee or manager
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a complaint you may have with the same scheme’s managers or administrators
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a complaint that has been dealt with by a court or another ombudsman
If you are unsure about whether we can investigate your complaint, please contact us.
What do I do next?
Once you have checked that your complaint is something we can deal with, you will need to submit an application and send us any documents related to your complaint. If you have not already complained to those involved and need some help, please read our factsheet ‘Complaining to the party/parties at fault’.
You can find out more about our processes and how we deal with your application in the next section.
Pension Protection Fund and Financial Assistance Scheme
What if my complaint is about a decision made by the Pension Protection Fund or the Financial Assistance Scheme?
Pension Protection Fund (PPF)
Individuals, employers, trustees and scheme managers can ask us to look at decisions made by the PPF Reconsideration Committee. We can also look at some complaints about how the PPF is run.
We can look at referrals of reviewable matters and complaints about maladministration causing injustice. Examples of maladministration include the PPF Board taking too long to act without good reason or giving incorrect or misleading information.
You can ask us to look at one or both of these issues.
The time limits for bringing these complaints are much shorter than complaints about a personal or occupational pension. See our FAQ 'What are the time limits for bringing a complaint about a decision made by the Pension Protection Fund or Financial Assistance Scheme?'
Before you bring a complaint to us, you must first go through the PPF’s two stage internal procedure. See the guidance on the Pension Protection Fund website for how to ask for a decision to be reviewed.
If you need help to do this, contact us.
Once you have received a final decision from the PPF Reconsideration Committee, we will be able to look at it.
Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS)
Individuals, employers, trustees and scheme managers can ask us to look at decisions made by the Scheme Manager of the FAS. These are known as appeals of FAS decisions.
Before you can ask us to investigate you must ask the FAS to review its decision. If you need help to do this, please contact us.
If you aren’t satisfied with the outcome you can ask us to investigate.
What we can look at
We can look at FAS decisions about a pension scheme or about something that affects an individual member of a scheme.
FAS decisions about pension schemes
Generally we can look at:
- scheme notification decisions – whether or not the relevant pension scheme details have been provided to the FAS within the required timescale.
- scheme eligibility decisions – whether or not a pension scheme is a qualifying pension scheme under the FAS.
FAS decisions about individuals
Generally we can look at:
- individual eligibility – whether or not someone is a qualifying member under the FAS
- individual assessment – payments someone is, or might be, entitled to receive under the FAS
We can’t look at general complaints about the FAS – for example delays with making a decision. These are dealt with by the Independent Case Examiner.