The Pensions Ombudsman Reviews 75

Three years and still waiting for my complaint to be assigned. When I pointed this out, I was accused of having an abusive tone! Maybe their attitude is part of the problem but certainly the Pension Ombudsman is no longer fit for purpose and unscrupulous businesses know this and appear to have complete disregard for them (and the FOS).

I submitted a complaint about one of my former employers (formerly known as St Martha's School, Hadley Wood) when I discovered last year that they had not paid over 3 years worth of pension contributions into my TPS for my employment between 2014 and 2017. I naively put my trust in the school, especially because it was a Catholic school, so did not check the contributions on the TPS. I did not think at that time that the bursar's department were either doing something illegal or were completely incompetent. I contacted various organisations when I found the problem, including a company that dealt with the school's finances in the past and the company that bought the school/took over in 2017 but was batted between pillar and post. Similarly, the Sisters who ran the school have since moved away/sold the convent they had in Potters Bar. I therefore put in a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman in October 2025. Since last year, and after emails where they asked for more and more information (despite me providing a whole array of things from the start), I received the outcome for my case which deeply upset me. Whilst I understand that there is a time limit for investigating such matters (although they have the authority to investigate beyond this time frame in exceptional circumstances) the case worker's decision was a tirade of victim blaming. My case assessor, Ms Waheed, repeatedly stated that I had not checked my pension and that they would not be investigating. It took over five months for them to tell me this! Unfortunately, the fact that I made an error in not checking does not eradicate the fact that I still have missing pension contributions for over three years or that an organisation has acted inappropriately. In effect, this was not an investigation of the distressing missing pension contributions but rather a scrutiny of the information I supplied. My advice to anyone is to check your pension contributions regularly, keep your pay slips and most importantly, don't expect the Pensions Ombudsman to stand up for every day people.

The reviews are right and I should have known better!!!. Waited almost three years for my case to be "investigated" to be advised taht even if they found in my favour they could not impose the decisiion on the Pension Provider (Zurich) anyway . Zurich unsurprisingly did not offer to settle at a figure appropriate to the distress and inconvernience caused so I have been forced to accept the derisory offer they made three years ago.
The Ombudsman system is broken. It needs closing down and a fair and more timely system introduced. The Pension companies know if they push you towards the Ombudsman they can delay things for years and then get away with the derisory offer they made in the first place.
A shambles.

Even when I told them the company is heading toward liqudation, they still insist on waiting 11 months which by that time, they're now in liqudation.

Completely useless, and explain why so many companies out there can get away with pension theft such as The Hackney Peddler.

A terrible organisation, impossible to claim to online form didn’t work. Obstructive, refusing to adjudicate on complaints that fall well into their jurastiction. Grim !

Every time I provided the information they asked for they sent another email asking for something else, what a waste of time this organisation is. If you are thinking of using them don't believe they will automatically be on your side. I gave up in the end and the pension provider continues to get away with an awful service to they pension members. My case had issue with the pension provider had been going on since Jan 2025. I got no help whatsoever from the Pension Ombudsman!

If you have a complaint against a pension provider, what you’re likely to find is that dealing with the Pension Ombudsman is at least as annoying if not more annoying than your original problem.

Case in point is the delayed communication and avoidance of dealing with problems head on. They will continually push you back to follow complaint processes of the pension provider, but have no recourse should the provider be ignoring your contact.

All of this will leave you realising that this is a toothless organisation, if you were to continue the metaphor further you’d say it was a decrepit, moth eaten and squalid entity.

Hopefully you get the picture, if you’re so inclined and can afford it, perhaps go legal straight away and save yourself the trouble of dealing with them.

Absolutely failure this organisation called Pension Ombudsman, should not exist because of services are below standards. Agents giving false tine frames year after year. It’s just not acceptable Do Not Use Pension Ombudsman services get a lawyer instead on no win no fee bases.

Forwarded a complaint to the Ombudsman over 3 years ago now and only recently received a decision. I even had to make a complaint about the Ombudsman to the PHSO due to their incompetence.
If you think you are going to get an impartial decision think again. Funnily enough they do not readily provide stats on percentage of cases they rule in favour of either party. I investigated and found that in over 70% of cases they rule in favour of the pension companies.
In my letter, I was warned that I had to treat the information contained as confidential and should not discuss with anyone else. Its quite ironic therefore that a confidential letter was issued to an address I moved from 2 years ago and they knew this. I would of thought any organisation sending such information should consider reporting themselves to the Information Commissioners office for breach of DPA. But not this one!!!

They take literally years to come to a decision and then side with the pension provider.

I complained over 3 years ago to the Financial Ombudsman as directed by the pensions company involved, 2 months later the FO said they didn’t deal with this type of complaint so I had to repeat it all to the Pensions Ombudsman. It is possibly worth noting that the FO charge the ‘offending’ company £650 if they proceed with the complaint but if they uphold your complaint will probably palm you off with £500 compensation which seems something of an imbalance.

The PO then picked up the case and took almost 3 years to inexplicably decide that there was no case to answer - when I read the adjudication I realised why as it is the most incompetent and incomplete piece of work I have seen in a long time. This was endorsed by the investigator’s manager and the PO himself which makes them complicit.

A complete waste of time - I would advise anyone to ask themselves whether they want to invest their own time & energy in this way. If everyone stops complaining hopefully they will be disbanded and we may get a worthwhile replacement.

A disgrace to humanity. A fetid cesspit of corruption and negligence. Knowing I am terminally ill and that my civil service pensions administrator has refused to respond to several complaints from me over a year, Pensions Ombudsman strung me along for a year (taking several months to respond to my chasers and giving e different excuses for not taking on my complaint) only to tell me there is another process i must first go through before they will consider my complaint.
I'm convinced they are hoping I will die before my pensions administrator is held to account.

My ref is CAS 131930 k4w1

This organisation is on a par with demonic corporations like NHS, run by individuals who feed off suffering and misery.

Edit: update 17 Jul 25. After stringing me along from Aug 24 to June 25 to come to the conclusion there was nothing they wanted to do about my complaint, in the ultimate display of irony, they responded PREMATURELY to a service complaint about themselves. Yes that's right. They responded to a service complaint I had not yet made.
All i did was ask for the complaints address. Being terminally ill, i had not got round to making a complaint yet. Imagine my surprise when I received a response to the complaint i'd not yet made! How did they even know the content of my future complaint or the outcomes for resolution? Hahaha! I guess they have a complaint responses template ready to churn out to try and save time.
You literally cannot make this up. If only they were as good at responding to pensions complaints as they are at responding to complaints youve not yet made. Do they have a time machine?

Edit: its now 2026 and I still cannot access my pension

They will not help if your pension company won’t respond to over 75 enquiries. Then 6 months later suddenly came up with a form/procedure I must use they fail to mention months earlier. I suggest court action rather than these. My pension company won’t give me the form.

TPO took over four years to review my case!
I had read the reviews before submitting my complaint but believed they could be "sour grapes" because cases were not upheld!

HOW WRONG I WAS!!!

They will do their utmost to defend the position of the pension provider even if the evidence you provide is indisputable .

In my case inaccurate investigatory information was provided by TPO and quotation changed to attempt to defend the pension provider

They are inefficient ,biased and parts of their investigation they do not wish to answer will not be covered which will leave you frustrated with few options if not upheld

TPO believe they are untouchable as very few members of the public will hire a solicitor for case to go to high court due to cost,risk and low confidence in the judicial system

The present Government should start with reducing their deficit and increase efficiencies by scrapping this organisation which is funded partly by the large organisations it protects!

11 months
Severe financial hardship due to ill health.
Refuse to make Section 20 Reasonable Adjustment.
Every time I telephone they pretend to escalate and terminate the call and never call back.
Reading reviews on here everyone seems to receive the same appalling service.
They don't even bother to respond here, which speaks volumes.
Think I need to get legal advice and abandon the case which hasn't been moving anyway.
Every ombudsman is the same.
Courts have horrendous backlogs but still quicker than these clowns.

Apauling service. Took 4 years to come to the conclusion that they were out of time for the limitation period. My money is lost and they cannot do anything. Literally the worst ombudsman service I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. They suggested that I should just accept the money is lost and the former employer who lost the money is correct in saying they have no record of me.

Beyond useless, will make you lose the will to live. I have a brain tumour and need to access my civil service pension urgently. Scheme administrator been refusing to communicate for 8 months. Been in touch with Ombudsman for 7 months.
During that time they have tried to discourage me from a formal complaint, told me to do informal resolution - made all kinds of promises.

Used my last energy reserves to put my case together. Straight away it was clear the person dealing was clueless about my case, kept asking questions he would have known had he read my case.

He then said there was nothing he could do because my pension provider was not answering his emails. N0 Sh1t! That's why I came to you.

Meanwhile my health is deteriorating and I'm sure I'll be dead before this matter is resolved. I wanted my money for neurosurgery but never mind, I'll just die instead.

Person handling my case Ian F. proceeded to make highly offensive and insensitive comments - strongly suggest he be given a crash course in the Equality Act.

Beyond disgusted.

I've had over two years wait for the pension ombudsman service to review a pension dispute for them to get back to me to say there will be a further 18month (1 year and a half) before they will allocate to a specialist advisor, disgusting service, don't bother they should be replaced for something fit for purpose!!

Having read other reviews, there's not a great deal I can add, other than they have a knack of turning it back on you so you end up investigating your own complaint, so unless you have qualifications in the pension service the pension ombudsman is a waste of time

Absolute useless waste of resources. Pathetic excuse for an establishment that doesn't merit any sane person thinking it merits using it. Meant to help settle pension issues, its as useful as flatulence for fresh air.