TPO resolves more complaints despite the challenges of the past year

The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) today publishes its Annual Report and Accounts for 2020/21. The Report highlights the introduction of a single application process for all pension complaints, ensuring complaints are resolved at the earliest stage.

Anthony Arter, Pensions Ombudsman said:

“The past year has been incredibly busy as we have continued to make improvements to the service we offer our customers. Despite the ongoing trend of increasing demand and the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, we have continued to resolve complaints at an earlier stage with minimal disruption to our service for customers. We closed 4,853 pension complaints during the year, representing an increase of almost 6% compared to last year.

During the year, Caroline Rookes was appointed as permanent Chair, Alex Robertson joined us as Chief Operating Officer and our Casework Reorganisation Programme was fully implemented. As a result, our governance has been strengthened and the customer journey has been simplified. Our transformational journey puts us in an excellent position to build on our achievements, prioritising further improvements to the customer journey and reducing customer waiting times.

I am delighted that I will be able to continue this work due to my appointment as Pensions Ombudsman being extended for a further 12 months. As we celebrate our 30^th anniversary of resolving pensions complaints, I am incredibly proud of our achievements over the past year.”

Our caseload

• We received 16,673 contacts by phone, email and post.
• We received 11,524 new general enquiries
• We received 5,567 new pension complaints
• The three most common topics of closed pensions complaints were: retirement benefits, pension transfers and misquote/misinformation.

 Our performance

• We resolved 11,737 general enquiries (287 were carried forward from 2019/20).
• Overall, we closed 4,853 pension complaints, an increase of almost 6% compared to last year.
• We closed 2,474 pension complaints at the application and assessment stages
• We closed 1,442 pension complaints informally through our Early Resolution Team
• We resolved 762 pension complaints through our Adjudication teams
• We closed 288 through formal Determinations by an Ombudsman - this represents 6% of overall closed pension complaints
• 41% of pension complaints determined by an Ombudsman were upheld or partly upheld compared to 29% in 2019/20.