If you are unhappy with the final response on your complaint you can escalate the issue to the Pensions Ombudsman (PO).
The PO is the impartial adjudicator who makes final and binding decisions regarding pension complaints on pension administration.
In order for complaints to be referred to the PO, members must first go through their pension scheme’s complaints procedure, commonly called internal dispute resolution.
The PO remit covers all complaints relating to the administrator of your pension scheme, while complaints regarding mis-selling of pensions comes under the Financial Ombudsman.
Members with pensions who have been transferred to the Pension Protection Fund have a separate Ombudsman to consider their complaints, called the Pension Protection Fund – Pensions Ombudsman.
The PPF Pensions Ombudsman is likely to have dealt with a similar complaint to yours in the past. You can use their website to search determinations to view the Ombudsman’s decisions on similar cases.
This can be useful to understand the considerations the Ombudsman makes when considering complaints and whether to upheld them or not. You can view their previous decisions here.
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