The Pensions Ombudsman Reviews 

Forget it you will wait 4 years minimum and orobably lots more until the make a decision.
They just cause you more stress abd work. Wish id known before i called them. Forget the start of the call message. They lie! I have been trying for 3 years to get my pension from Clerical medical. My company was sold put and CM won't even look at the evidence I've sent from companies house. They agreed they didn't send any letters to any company for a year! Offering me £200 but still no pension. Then when they did they sent it to the old company that doesn't exist anymore. I'm nearly 70 now. I've been ill with all the stress and time spent either drafting letters or on the phone (which was for around an hour every call most days. I was led to believe from the Ombudsman they would help so spent months photocopying and scanning documents for them collationg diary information etc. Its now been over a year since I submitted everything to the ombusman and I havent even been allocated someone to look at it (first stage of 4 levels) I asked how long it could be to the last person i managed to speak to (they don't take calls now except to encourage new complaints) Dont get drawn in, you are wasting your time and will endues years of stress and costs when I was told my case would probably be at least 4 more years before it would be a decision. I could be dead by then! I would suggest the only pension I would have would be through property. At least you can manage that. Yes even tax advantage is no good if you never get paid out. I know of others in the same situation just incredulous until you are in.it. I feel as though my life has been on hold over this last 3 years fighting for it. Wish me Good luck that Clerical Medical eventually let me have my pension. Thx

Have a issue with my Scottish widows pension that has now been going on for more than a year. Contacted the ombudsman and received email with claim form, filled in and returned , sent several emails since and they don't even bother to reply, can anyone tell me who I contact to complain about the ombudsman.
Well I have now had contact withe the ombudsman, filled out there form then told they can not help because I haven't received a final proposal. All Scottish widows send is a letter we are looking into your complaint and are looking to to sort it out as soon as possible, if we haven't sorted it out in 4 weeks we will get back to you. This letter as now been send 4 times how long am I supposed to wait.
The pension ombudsman is a complete waste of tax payers money.

Early Resolution Team at the Pension Ombusman fail to meet their deadlines.

I received an email stating there would be a response in 6- 8 wks BUT 23wks later there is still silence.

Called the Pension Ombusman today- they started by claiming their IT service is down- no access to case files.

The PO also failed to acknowledge that a 23wk wait was excessive, claiming that their workloads change daily.

The PO in their email of the 23rd of April 2023, stated that they would respond in 6-8 wks. YET, speaking on the phone to the PO today, the inference was I HAD PUT THIS DEADLINE ON THE PO.

In all cases where institutions are failing, my experience has been to have the said institution deflect blame, claim YOU have a feeling or its YOUR opinion.

When in fact, as in this case, the Pension Ombudsman elected to give themselves a window of opportunity to respond, 6-8 wks.

It is not unreasonable to chase this matter up 23wks later or 15wks after the deadline.

As expected, appears to be an 'ombudsman' providing oversight for the consumer, however in reality when faced with factual evidence to the contrary they still support the industry and will reject any claim even supporting industry malpractice.

When questioned about their outcome they fail to provide any evidence!

Very strange and sad for those members of the public who have large invested pensions with the company in question.

I first got in
touch with the financial Ombudsman in March 2023 to help me resolve my complaint with Scottish Widows regarding the non payment of my AVC. I have been passed from pillar to post and the latest response from the Pension Ombudsman in July 2023 stating that it could take up to 20 weeks to review my complaint yet again. They were blaming the cyber incident and lack of people to look at it.
They appear to be no better than Scottish Widows whom my complaint is against.

I felt that the adjudicator was not really focused on my complaint and just wanted to close it down. I did not feel he was objective. He often got details wrong in the emails to me and appeared to just believe what the pensions trustees said even though they change the details several times. After over 4 years I was worn out with it and ended it.

No teachers pension. Complained to this lot months ago and have a case number. NO ACTION OR COMMUNICATION.

Since cyber incident, company has totally shut down, unable to speak to anyone, no response to emails. Absolute desgrace.
Had the stress trying to sort out my complaint with my company pension and now having the same stress with these clowns

Update.
Was told in January this year there is a backlog and can take approx 11mths to reassign my case to the appropriate team as they are training new staff, not holding my breath that my case ever get looked at and will get lost in the system

Everyone of these people should be lined up and shot .An absolute disgrace to this Country .Almost akin to a third world state behaviour .No accountability it seems and most of these mutant ####bags will be trousering a high wage no doubts
Scandalous

How can an organisation funded from public money be allowed to just close down? No online forms, no phone response, no email response. Now we have to clog up the courts to get justice. I hope these people are not getting paid.

They have shut themselves down since 5 June 2023. There is no way of contacting them. Telephones have short recorded messages. Emails go completely unanswered. Their website is effectively shut down. What is going on? You can bet they are still receiving their salaries ...

Many people's experience is that all the Ombudsman staff take sides with companies in the wrong and mess the public more. So the public first get injustice from the organisations and then more injustice from the Ombudsman. The staff do this to have an easy life. They are afraid to take on the organisation and bully the public member with gross injustice.

The pension ombudsman staff did the same with my complaint. The first staff did not even read my complaint properly and got all the facts totally wrong.
So I appealed and the staff all of a sudden made the petty excuse that I was out of time to close ranks with the colleagues in the wrong. So I suffered triple injustice. Nobody cares! All the Ombudsman organisations should be disbanded as they are wasting millions on making things worse for the public. The money saved should be used to improve the National Health Service.

Can't even raise a complaint with this toothless tiger.
Shut down
- no Internet form
- no telephone response
Little wonder incompetent pensions administrators are getting away with treating their members with such disdain.
Pensions Ombudsman is pointless - should be shut down - it serves no meaningful purpose.

Another sham entity put in place to trick the public into thinking they might have someone to fight their corner in times of grievance. In reality it is only there to serve the master who pays its wages – the pension companies. We’d be better off with a recorded message that says, “can’t help, go away.” Still wouldn’t get any justice, but at least you wouldn’t have to wait months & months to be told the same thing. This organisation isn’t fit for purpose & needs to be replaced.

Don't waste your time with this lot!!
They are clearly in favour of the pension companies. They are also afraid to go up against them. This case was with them for 3 years. There was no communication at all during that period re updates. They are all working from home and have inadequate access to their own systems. There is no oversight of how cases are handled nor their level of accuracy and decision making on cases.

I notice they do not comment on such reviews. Come on TPO lets hear it.....??????????

I suggest you resort to legal action if you can afford it. It will be quicker, more effect and get a result for you NOT the pension companies.

The Pensions Ombudsman is a toothless, gutless and shoddy organisation. It is afraid to stand up against pension companies, who run roughshod over individuals.
The Pension Ombudsman needs to remove the word "impartial".

Ridiculous timescales to even look at a complaint, let alone consider it. 2 months to respond to the initial submission, and this is only to provide an email confirming that it will take them 10 months (yes that is TEN MONTHS) to consider if the complaint is within their jurisdiction, at which point they will then go on to consider the complaint. How long will it take them to actually consider the complaint itself??? Disgraceful levels of service - is it any wonder the pensions industry is held in such low regard? When the Ombudsman demonstrates the importance it places on dealing with complaints, by taking years to consider them?!?
Broken system.
Ombudsman that is not fit for purpose.

Just do not trouble yourself with these people !
On nigh on 3 years to not have any satisfaction whatsoever with a clear case of Theft from my Late Fathers Widows Pension.
They seemed most loathed to investigate for just this reason.
They should be closed down imho !

Had I simply moved my Pension investment from the provider I complained about 6 months ago, I would have made more money than I wished to pursue with the help of this dreadful organisation. They are slow, unaccountable, and useless. When you do eventually speak to someone, they talk as if they are falling asleep! It appears they could not give a to** about customers who have experienced poor pension handling at the start and I had no confidence they would improve. I cancelled my complaint, the pension company gets off the hook. TOTAL WASTE OF TIME.

“We will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right”

Part XXIX Magna Carta (1297)

The concept of neither delaying, nor denying, an individual the right to justice enshrined in the Magna Carta all those years ago remains on the statute books to this day – See Legislation.Gov.UK.

This fact has clearly eluded Mr Arter and his minions.
After a five year ‘investigation’ by them, and several attempts to fob me off, he finally dismissed my complaint a few days ago. It is apparent that they are currently working at full speed to clear all the aging cases they have been sitting on for years, prior to Mr Arter stepping down in January.

Let me be the first to wish him a short and miserable retirement.

Over the last few years I have, unfortunately, had dealings with many ‘public servants’ like Mr Arter.

I have discovered that the two things that these people hate most is,
1) Being reminded of Lord Nolan’s principles (see the list of 7 below) and
2) The Freedom of Information and Data Protection laws.
---------------------------------
Selflessness · Integrity · Objectivity · Accountability · Openness · Honesty · Leadership

Nope. None of these words comes to mind when I consider how they have dealt with my case.

Incompetence - Cynicism – Bias – Arrogance – Fraud

Yep. That’s more like it.

Now there are – allegedly – other public servants who are ‘champions’ for “ethical standards across public life”.

They are the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
Their remit, apparently, is to “conduct broad inquiries, collecting evidence to assess institutions”. However, they have “no remit to comment on or investigate individual cases”.

They can ignore us as individuals but if every person let down by Arter and Co emails them, they might act – they certainly won’t be able to deny knowledge of any problem.

Their email address is on-line. Apparently, I am not allowed to reproduce it here!?

I haven’t sent an email to them yet as I am waiting on a response from the Ombudsman to a Subject Access Request I made (under the DPA / GDPR). A previous SAR provided me with evidence to support the views I have expressed here.

I’d recommend that you do the same if you are interested in what they have been up to. Some organisations will supply helpful information on making such a request and have a dedicated email address – not apparently the case here, so I sent mine to their general enquiries email address.

Whilst I have absolutely no doubt that the evidence in my case would allow me to win an appeal, I can’t risk going to court and facing the prospect of losing everything I have ever worked for. Arter and Co know that us ‘little people’ effectively have no recourse. Only the rich and those eligible for legal aid stand a chance of obtaining justice.

I will keep fighting to get the truth out there. There are thousands of members in the same scheme as me – affected by the same issues. One day – one of them will be successful and prove me right.