Ombuds Day - a blog from Robert Loughlin

Today is Ombuds Day - an opportunity to raise awareness and understanding of Ombudsman services. This year’s theme is ‘Here to Hear’ and The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) is proud to be a part of this vital dispute resolution sector. It gives people an opportunity to have their complaint resolved without going to court, levelling the playing field at no cost to the complainant.

Pensions are complicated and it is important that people are aware that there is a free and impartial service they can turn to if they are unable to resolve their complaint with the parties involved. If it is decided that the complaint is justified, the Ombudsman can decide what needs to be done to put things right.

Different Ombudsman services have different powers. At TPO, our decisions are legally binding on both parties and can be enforced through the courts. The awards we can make to rectify the issue being complained about are unlimited and, if significant distress and inconvenience has been caused, we can make an award in recognition of this.

We also work with the wider pension sector, government departments and regulatory bodies to address common issues and themes before there is a need for us to get involved. Wherever possible we encourage resolution through local dispute handling processes, as these are very often the quickest and most effective way to resolve complaints.  

Like many Ombudsman services, we have seen an increase in demand for our services as the number of pension holders increase and the types of complaints that we deal with become even more complex. This has been a challenge for us as our funding has not kept pace with this rise and has led to our waiting times becoming much longer than we would like.

We are, however, responding to the challenge and at the start of 2024 launched our Operating Model Review (OMR) programme. This aims to deliver a 25% improvement in efficiency across the organisation over the next three years, with a specific focus on reducing waiting times. We will achieve this by bringing forward the point at which decisions are made in our processes, through clearer signposting about the complaints that we can and cannot help customers with (and those that should be dealt with by others), and by investing in our people. We will also continue to make the case for additional funding to support the growth in complaints that we are seeing and are likely to see in the future.

There are a wide range of Ombudsman services representing different sectors and you can find these listed in the Ombudsman Association guide.