Question 8
I want to make a complaint about my pension - should I complain to The Pensions Ombudsman straight away?
Before you submit a complaint to us, you need to give the party you think is at fault a chance to put things right.
Many pension schemes or providers have their own complaints process, which is often the best way to make sure your complaint is seen by the relevant people as quickly as possible.
If your complaint is about an occupational pension scheme, you should ask for it to be dealt with under its Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure (IDRP).
See our factsheet ‘Complaining to the party/parties at fault’ for more information.
If you are not sure who you should complain to, please contact us.
Related questions
When someone asks us to look into a problem, they have often been trying to resolve it for some time. A lot of people feel very frustrated or distressed.
We have to be impartial and look into a problem without taking sides. Sometimes a decision that is fair in a legal sense may not seem fair to you personally.
We will always be open and honest with you about how and why we have made our decisions.
Please see our ‘How we investigate complaints’ factsheet for more details on our process and what this means to you.
In the first instance you should contact your employer and try to resolve the matter yourself. To find out more please see our ‘Complaining to the party/parties at fault’ factsheet.
But, if you have already raised the matter with your employer and it remains unresolved, please complete our application and we will look into whether we can help to resolve it.
You may also want to report the non-payment of contributions to The Pensions Regulator. Some useful information can be found in our ‘Workplace pensions – unpaid pension contributions’ factsheet.