Complaining about a pension provider, platform or fund manager

When something goes wrong with a pension, whether it is a personal pension, a workplace scheme, a SIPP held on a platform, or a fund managed on your behalf, the route to getting it fixed is the same: complain to the firm first, and take it to an ombudsman only if the firm does not put things right. The firm has eight weeks to give you a final response, and both the Pensions Ombudsman and the Financial Ombudsman Service are free to use¹.

Which ombudsman you end up with depends on what went wrong and who was responsible. Complaints about the running and administration of a pension scheme generally go to the Pensions Ombudsman; complaints about the sale or marketing of pensions, and about financial advisers, go to the Financial Ombudsman Service². Getting this right at the start saves time, though the Financial Ombudsman will tell you if it thinks your complaint belongs with the Pensions Ombudsman instead³.

Pension complaints are common. In 2024/2025 consumers raised just over 7,300 complaints against pensions and annuity providers⁴, and the Pensions Ombudsman's three most common new complaint topics were contributions, retirement benefits and calculation of benefits⁵. Neither ombudsman charges consumers anything, and no solicitor or claims company is needed¹.

Who to complain to first: the provider, platform or fund manager

Every complaints route in UK financial services starts with the firm itself. The Financial Ombudsman's guidance is consistent across its product pages: before it will look at a complaint, the company involved must first have had the chance to put things right⁶. The Pensions Ombudsman applies the same rule and is more specific about who counts as "the firm": before it takes an application, a formal complaint must first have been made directly to the relevant party, such as the trustees or manager of the pension scheme, the administrator, or an employer⁹.

Who that is depends on the kind of pension you have:

• For a personal pension, SIPP or stakeholder plan, it is the provider or platform that holds the pot.
• For a workplace pension, it may be the scheme's trustees, the administrator, the employer, or the master trust running the scheme.
• For a fund within a pension, it may be the fund manager, though complaints about how the fund was chosen for you may be about advice instead.

Where the problem lies with the employer rather than the pension firm, for example missing contributions or an employer not meeting its automatic enrolment duties, The Pensions Regulator's guidance is to speak to the employer first, and to report the matter to the regulator if someone feels unable to do that or still has concerns afterwards¹⁰. The same first-step rule applies even in newer areas of the market: a complaint about targeted support from a firm cannot be taken further until a complaint has been made to that provider first¹¹.

There is a practical reason for this beyond procedure. A firm's own complaint handling often resolves the issue, and the final response letter you receive is evidence the ombudsman will want to see. Skipping the firm does not speed things up; the ombudsman will normally send you back to it.

How to make a complaint and what to include

A complaint does not need legal language. It needs to say what happened, when, what went wrong and what you want done about it. When you eventually apply to the Pensions Ombudsman, it asks for full details of your complaint, the final response from any party you believe to be at fault, any relevant correspondence, and copies of the policies and scheme rules under which the decision was made, if you have them¹². Gathering these as you go makes the later stages much easier.

The Pensions Ombudsman's application can be completed online, and you will need to include full details of your complaint together with the response, if any, from any party you believe to be at fault¹³. A useful checklist:

1. Write to the firm's complaints department, not its general enquiries address, and say you are making a formal complaint.
2. Set out the facts in date order, with account or policy numbers.
3. Attach copies of anything relevant: statements, letters, illustrations, transfer paperwork.
4. Say what outcome you want, for example a correction, a payment, or compensation for distress.
5. Keep a copy of everything you send, and note dates of calls.

Some situations have their own routes. Providers of pensions dashboard services must give users information on how to complain about the service or the provider's acts or omissions, including a link to the Money and Pensions Service central complaints process¹⁴. If you have been targeted by a pension scam, the scam should be reported to the pension provider, the Financial Conduct Authority, and Action Fraud¹⁵.

It helps to know what other people complain about, because it shows how wide the net can be. The Pensions Ombudsman's most common new complaint topics are contributions, retirement benefits and calculation of benefits⁵. Its published examples of complaint types include incorrect calculation or late payment of benefits, charges and fees, death benefits, failure to provide information or act on instructions, fund switches, ill health, misquotes and misinformation, pension liberation, transfers, winding up and with-profits issues¹³. At the Financial Ombudsman, the most complained-about investment and pension product in 2020/21 was the self-invested personal pension, with 3,021 new complaints, and the most complained-about issue was administration or customer service, with 8,483 new complaints, a 50% year-on-year rise¹⁶.

The firm has eight weeks to send a final response

Once the firm has your complaint, the clock starts. The Financial Ombudsman's rule for most types of complaint is that the firm needs to give you its final response within eight weeks¹. If it does not send a final response letter within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with the response, you can bring the complaint to the ombudsman¹⁷. The same eight-week deadline applies across financial services: credit unions, for example, have eight weeks to investigate and give a final response¹⁸, and a claims management company has to give its final response within eight weeks¹⁷.

The eight weeks is a deadline for a final response, not for a first acknowledgement. Firms often acknowledge within days and then investigate. What matters is that at some point within the eight weeks you receive a letter that sets out the firm's conclusion, and tells you that if you remain dissatisfied you may now refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service¹⁹. The FCA's complaint handling rules also allow a firm, where relevant, to refer in that response to the availability of the Pensions Ombudsman as well as the Financial Ombudsman¹⁹.

If you go on to the Pensions Ombudsman, its own timescales are longer. Complaints with a clear outcome are likely to be resolved within 18 months, and complaints needing a formal investigation are likely to take more than 18 months⁹.

Which ombudsman: the Pensions Ombudsman or the Financial Ombudsman

Two ombudsman services cover pensions, and they split the work by subject matter rather than by type of pension.

The Pensions Ombudsman deals with complaints and disputes concerning the administration and management of occupational and personal pension schemes, and any difficulty with a scheme that cannot be resolved or that might become a complaint²⁰. It can help if you have a complaint about your pension scheme, and you can complain to it if you are unhappy with how your employer or workplace pension scheme dealt with your situation²¹. Its list of what it covers is broad: benefits that were calculated incorrectly, refused or paid late, charges and fees, death benefits, failure to act on instructions, fund switches, ill health, transfers, and more²⁰.

What it does not cover is the selling side. Complaints about the sale or marketing of pensions, or about financial advisers, need to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service². The Financial Ombudsman can look at complaints about a financial adviser or pensions provider regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and at complaints about businesses the FCA regulates, including some pension schemes and their services³. It handles complaints about group personal pensions, and where a complaint is really about the administration of a personal pension scheme, including self-invested pensions and group personal pensions, either the Financial Ombudsman or the Pensions Ombudsman could help³.

Two boundaries are worth knowing:

• State Pension. If a complaint is about the State Pension, neither ombudsman is the right place: the Pension Service handles these complaints²³.
• Not sure which one. A complaint can be brought to the Financial Ombudsman, and if it thinks it should be dealt with by the Pensions Ombudsman, it will let the person know³.

If your complaint is about the Pensions Ombudsman's own service rather than its decision, you can take that to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which can only look at complaints about process, not decisions⁹. In Northern Ireland, guidance confirms the same split: you can complain to MoneyHelper or the Pensions Ombudsman about how your workplace pension is managed²⁴.

Time limits: three years, six years and possible extensions

Time limits are where pension complaints most often fail, so it pays to raise an issue as soon as you discover it¹².

The Pensions Ombudsman. You generally have three years to bring a complaint: within three years of when the events you are complaining about happened, or, if later, within three years of when you first knew about it, or ought to have known about it⁷. The limit can be extended. The Pensions Ombudsman may be able to extend the time limit if something prevented you from complaining sooner, such as a serious illness, or your complaint being tied up with another organisation such as the Financial Ombudsman Service, and it will need evidence of the reason for the delay².

The Financial Ombudsman. The FCA's rules, which the Financial Ombudsman works to, mean it cannot consider a complaint referred more than six years after the event complained of, or, if later, more than three years from the date on which you became aware, or ought reasonably to have become aware, that you had cause for complaint⁸.

The two limits measure different things, and a complaint that is too late for one may still be in time for the other, depending on the facts. Because of that, the practical rule from every official source is the same: complain to any party you believe to be at fault as soon as possible, as there are time limits for bringing a complaint¹³.

A separate time limit applies to employers who have been fined by The Pensions Regulator for breaking workplace pension rules: they must first ask the regulator to review the decision, and can then appeal to a tribunal, and if they miss the time limit they can ask for more time, with the tribunal deciding whether it can still take the case²⁵.

What compensation or redress you can get

Redress from an ombudsman is about putting you back in the position you would have been in, so far as money can do that, rather than punishing the firm.

Where wrong pensions advice caused the problem, the Financial Ombudsman will likely tell the financial adviser or pensions provider to put things right, for example by paying compensation into your pension plan or straight to you, and it can also award compensation for distress or inconvenience³. In transfer cases, if a calculation shows you have suffered a financial loss, the redress can be paid directly to you or to your private pension²⁶. The kinds of failings it looks for include an adviser who did not check your attitude to risk or your capacity for loss, recommended unsuitable investments, or advised transferring workplace benefits where you lost employer contributions or guaranteed defined benefit benefits²⁷.

The Pensions Ombudsman has similar powers. Where trustees or scheme managers did not comply with their legal obligations and this caused you loss, it may direct that they reinstate funds into the scheme for you, or provide comparable benefits in another pension scheme, and it can also make an award for any distress and inconvenience you have suffered¹³.

In practice, redress can take several forms:

• Correcting the record, for example recalculating benefits or restoring a fund switch that should not have happened.
• Reinstating funds into the scheme or providing comparable benefits elsewhere¹³.
• A money payment, to you or into your pension³.
• An award for distress and inconvenience¹³.

When the firm has failed: FSCS claims

A complaint assumes the firm is still trading and can pay. When a pension provider has failed, the route changes to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. If your pension provider was authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and cannot pay your pension, you can get compensation from the FSCS²⁴.

The level of cover depends on when the provider failed:

This is protection against the provider failing, not against investments falling in value. It is also separate from the Pension Protection Fund, which protects members of defined benefit schemes when the employer fails; the comparison between the two is covered in PPF vs FSCS protection.

Complaints about the Financial Assistance Scheme: a three-stage process

The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) helps members of certain closed defined benefit schemes whose employer went bust before the Pension Protection Fund existed. Complaints about the FAS follow a set three-stage process, and there are two types of FAS complaint: FAS Complaints and Statutory Reviews²⁹.

The stages, with the response times the Pension Protection Fund, which administers the FAS, aims for:

1. Stage 1: the Resolutions Team. Your complaint is acknowledged straight away and the team aims to send a full reply within 10 working days³⁰.
2. Stage 2: the Senior Resolutions Panel. If you are unhappy with the stage 1 reply, you can ask the Resolutions Team to escalate your complaint, and it will be reviewed by a member of the Senior Resolutions Panel, with a full reply aimed at within 28 days²⁹.
3. Stage 3: the Pension Protection Fund Ombudsman. If you remain unhappy, you can escalate your complaint to stage 3, where a committee of PPF non-executive directors will consider it³⁰. The external stage is subject to the Pension Protection Fund Ombudsman's own response times²⁹.

The same three-stage structure, with the same response times, applies to complaints about the Pension Protection Fund itself, which handles two types of complaint, each for a different type of concern³¹.

Free help with a pension complaint

Nothing in this process requires paid help. The Pensions Ombudsman provides a free and impartial service⁹, the Financial Ombudsman says bringing a complaint to it will not cost you anything¹, and the Pensions Ombudsman states plainly that you have the right to refer your complaint to it free of charge²⁰. Its determinations are legally binding on all the parties and enforceable in court²⁰.

Free guidance is available before you even start:

• The Pensions Ombudsman's member guidance hub covers how to complain about a pension problem, common complaint topics, who can complain and what it can and cannot do, including overpayments, ill-health pensions, death benefits and incorrect pension information³².
• MoneyHelper and the Pensions Ombudsman are both routes for complaints about how a workplace pension is managed²⁴.
• The Pensions Ombudsman's signposting material sets out where to go for help with a pension complaint, including the split between the two ombudsmen²⁰.

If you have already paid a claims management company and are unhappy with its conduct, ask for a copy of its complaints procedure or check its website, contact it with your complaint so it has the chance to put things right, and keep a record; you can also complain to the FCA if you are unhappy with the conduct of a claims company³³. Claims management complaints that are not resolved go to the Claims Management Ombudsman, which applies the same eight-week final response rule¹⁷.