TPO Stakeholder Forum - A blog by Jennifer Ryans

In this blog, Jennifer Ryans, Deputy Chief Operating Officer – Casework, reflects on our recent Stakeholder Forum and summarises her key takeaways from the event. 

On 27 June, we welcomed stakeholders from across the industry to our offices here in London for our Stakeholder Forum. It was fantastic to meet so many people in person and really exciting for me as this was my first stakeholder event at TPO.

The aim of the event was two-fold. It was an opportunity for stakeholders to hear directly from us about our approach to casework and what we have planned over the next few years. But importantly, it was also an opportunity for us to hear from the industry about what we can do better and what you are seeing on the front line. From my perspective, what really made the event successful was the wide range of attendees from across the sector, who were so open to sharing their different views and experiences.  

Robert Loughlin, TPO Chief Operating Officer, and I had an opportunity to update attendees on the work we have planned to reduce our queue lengths and waiting times. One of the ways we will achieve this is by requiring complainants to exhaust schemes’ formal complaints processes before referring their complaint to us. It was great to hear that the industry has an appetite for taking greater ownership of dispute resolution processes – attendees made some really helpful and constructive comments about how we can work with them to support this, which will feed into our planning. From those I spoke to I got a real sense of eagerness to resolve complaints and disputes at the earliest opportunity and we are committed to helping with that ambition. 

Our stakeholders often feed back that they want more case studies so, in response, colleagues also ran two spotlight sessions focussed on transfers and overpayment complaints. These are clearly two areas of interest for the industry, and it was great to have an opportunity to share and discuss some examples of both good practice and where improvements can be made. In relation to overpayments, I was encouraged by schemes’ open-mindedness to considering the defences to recovery as part of IDRP, with some confirming that they are already reviewing their caseloads to assess whether defences might be successful. 

There definitely seemed to be a common thread running through all the thoughtful contributions, which showed our collective interest in delivering the right outcomes for pension scheme members and making sure that customers are treated fairly. 

I hope that you will consider joining us at one of our future events. If you are not already subscribed, do join our mailing list to receive all TPO updates and event invites direct to your mailbox.