| Pensions Ombudsman 17:39 - Jul 11 with 1475 views | Zx1988 |
Question for the hive mind...
I've complained about some issues with a pension transfer, and have been offered £100 in compensation as a gesture of goodwill from the provider.
If I were to escalate the matter further, eventually to the Pensions Ombudsman, would there be a cost to the provider in dealing with the escalated complaint? I know that the Dispute Resolution provider used in my profession charges firms for its involvement, but I don't know if this is widespread in other sectors. |  |
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| Pensions Ombudsman on 17:58 - Jul 11 with 1404 views | bluefunk |
Is it fair to assume they declined the complaint? How confident are you that the advice was wrong. Having been down this road for a client, I’d say it’s well worth letting the provider know you don’t accept the offer, especially if you feel the advice was wrong. If the Financial Services Ombudsman gets involved it will take ages to get a decision but it means that the provider has to jump through lots of hoops so they might have a rethink. If the advice was wrong, then £100 compensation is probably peanuts. |  | | |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 18:10 - Jul 11 with 1363 views | BloomBlue |
Most pension companies follow the compensation rules as defined by the Ombudsman. So it is possible the £100 is the total based on their guidelines.
Contacting the Ombudsman won't cost you anything. |  | | |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 08:04 - Jul 12 with 1071 views | ElephantintheRoom |
Some issues with a pension transfer? Depends what those issues are. You must have been given a transfer value - and they should have transferred that sum to you in their own good time. | |
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| Pensions Ombudsman on 08:26 - Jul 12 with 1013 views | DJR |
The fact that the provider has offered you compensation suggests an acceptance of liability on its part but as ElephantintheRoom suggests what you might be entitled to by way of compensation depends on what the error is.
If my experience with taking a bank to the Banking Ombudsman is anything to go by, the provider will seek to offer you as little as it can, so I think there is no harm taking it further, but you will probably have to exhaust the provider's complaints' procedure first.
And if the Pension Ombudsman is anything like the Banking Ombudsman, I imagine any costs to the provider will be covered by the department of the provider that deals with such things, but there will be no cost to you. [Post edited 12 Jul 2024 8:49]
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| Pensions Ombudsman on 08:40 - Jul 12 with 965 views | BlueJudge |
£100 compensation is typically given as 'yes, we could have done better, but you haven't been materially affected, sorry for the hassle of submitting a complaint'. However, if you feel that is insufficient and wish to decline the £100, you can take it the Financial Ombudsman. Extra time and effort will be required for the provider to justify the £100 offered to the Ombudsman and it is always avoided if possible. If an Intermediary is involved there is a cost to them and if the organisation is large they kind of pay a quarterly advance fee based on expected cases. Free to the consumer. Fin Ombudsman decision is final. | | | |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 08:46 - Jul 12 with 924 views | Daninthecampo |
Any complaint referred to the ombudsman costs the company immediately( its how its mostly funded,I want to say £500 but its been 8 years since I've dealt with them) so if they know they've done something wrong even the threat to refer them can make them increase their compensation | | | |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 09:18 - Jul 12 with 881 views | BloomBlue |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 08:46 - Jul 12 by Daninthecampo |
Any complaint referred to the ombudsman costs the company immediately( its how its mostly funded,I want to say £500 but its been 8 years since I've dealt with them) so if they know they've done something wrong even the threat to refer them can make them increase their compensation |
It depends on what they've done wrong.
I have experience, based on a family member, where pension transfer took longer than the current pension company had advised. This happened a lot during covid with pension companies blaming with from home.
So.....
Pension company A said pensions would be transferred within 6 weeks, in this example it took 12 weeks to transfer to Company B
The ombudsman had Company A provide details on growth/loss on the pension during that longer delay. They then had Company B advise where the pension would have been invested during that same period and compared the growth/loss between the two. In this example they decided the pension growth was the same in both situations and therefore 'family member' wasn't impacted financially by the delay. So the compensation was for inconvenience.
Daninthecampo.
I've just asked the family member what he received from Company A because of that delay and it was £500. That was because as above the delay didn't financially impact the value of his pension. He did also say the pension he was transferring out was his company pension and the fact he had worked for the company he thinks they were slightly more generous as the ombudsman had indicated £300 for inconvenience | | | |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 11:21 - Jul 12 with 774 views | Zx1988 |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 09:18 - Jul 12 by BloomBlue |
It depends on what they've done wrong.
I have experience, based on a family member, where pension transfer took longer than the current pension company had advised. This happened a lot during covid with pension companies blaming with from home.
So.....
Pension company A said pensions would be transferred within 6 weeks, in this example it took 12 weeks to transfer to Company B
The ombudsman had Company A provide details on growth/loss on the pension during that longer delay. They then had Company B advise where the pension would have been invested during that same period and compared the growth/loss between the two. In this example they decided the pension growth was the same in both situations and therefore 'family member' wasn't impacted financially by the delay. So the compensation was for inconvenience.
Daninthecampo.
I've just asked the family member what he received from Company A because of that delay and it was £500. That was because as above the delay didn't financially impact the value of his pension. He did also say the pension he was transferring out was his company pension and the fact he had worked for the company he thinks they were slightly more generous as the ombudsman had indicated £300 for inconvenience |
This is pretty much it.
Advised Company A that I wanted to transfer out, and they did all they could to make it as protracted as possible. Months to receive the transfer-out forms, Company A throwing up all sorts of hurdles over really petty things, and then taking a further four months to actually disinvest the funds once they were satisfied that all the boxes had been ticked.
I went back to them on the basis that an Ombudsman referral would cost them (by my research) about £650, and requested that they triple the compensation in order to avoid this. Hey presto, agreement to my request arrived in my inbox within about two hours this morning! | |
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| Pensions Ombudsman on 11:43 - Jul 12 with 749 views | BloomBlue |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 11:21 - Jul 12 by Zx1988 |
This is pretty much it.
Advised Company A that I wanted to transfer out, and they did all they could to make it as protracted as possible. Months to receive the transfer-out forms, Company A throwing up all sorts of hurdles over really petty things, and then taking a further four months to actually disinvest the funds once they were satisfied that all the boxes had been ticked.
I went back to them on the basis that an Ombudsman referral would cost them (by my research) about £650, and requested that they triple the compensation in order to avoid this. Hey presto, agreement to my request arrived in my inbox within about two hours this morning! |
Firstly; sorry Daninthecampo I meant to reply to Zx1988 not you.
Yes, that happened a lot especially during Covid. The excuse being all pension transfer forms were paper based, not online. Which meant when you completed the forms and returned them to the pension company they went to the 'head office', and then they had to get them delivered to the WFH person. It was a terrible excuse.
Which! the consumer org, did a big thing on it and complained to the regulator. Basically taking the approach pensions are classed as critical, same as banking and companies should push people back into the office or devise a better process. | | | |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 11:46 - Jul 12 with 739 views | Zx1988 |
| Pensions Ombudsman on 11:43 - Jul 12 by BloomBlue |
Firstly; sorry Daninthecampo I meant to reply to Zx1988 not you.
Yes, that happened a lot especially during Covid. The excuse being all pension transfer forms were paper based, not online. Which meant when you completed the forms and returned them to the pension company they went to the 'head office', and then they had to get them delivered to the WFH person. It was a terrible excuse.
Which! the consumer org, did a big thing on it and complained to the regulator. Basically taking the approach pensions are classed as critical, same as banking and companies should push people back into the office or devise a better process. |
All the more ludicrous as it was all done digitally in my case. It was so patently obvious that they were trying to cling to the funds for as long as possible so as to be rather amusing. | |
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