Pensions and annuities

We look at complaints about pensions providers and advisers that are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), including those about:

• personal pensions and 'self-invested personal pensions' (SIPPs) covering both advice and administration issues
• transfers from one personal pension arrangement to another
• transfers from occupational pension schemes to personal pensions or SIPPs, including issues relating to the Pension Review
• additional voluntary contribution schemes (AVCS) and free-standing additional voluntary contribution schemes (FSAVCS)
• in certain situations, advice on some types of workplace pensions where the member is also the trustee, such as executive pension plans (EPP) or small self-administered schemes (SSAS) 

If a complaint doesn’t fall under our jurisdiction, we’ll tell the consumer about other organisations that might be able to help them.

The Pensions Ombudsman deals with complaints about:

• the administration – not advice – of personal pensions
• workplace pensions, except those concerning advice
• state pensions

You may be handling a complaint that the Pensions Ombudsman could also deal with – for example, the administration of a personal pension. Even so, your final response letter must still tell the customer clearly that they have a right to bring the complaint to our service.

You'll find the requirements for a final response letter in the FCA handbook.

When investigating a complaint, we'll look at the facts and evidence from both you and your customer and consider any:

• relevant laws and regulations
• regulators’ rules in place when the event happened
• guidance, standards and codes of practice in place at the time of the event

We follow the FCA’s dispute resolution rules (DISP). We’ll also look at how you’ve tried to put things right.

Every case is unique and we assess each one according to its own merits. But if we uphold a complaint we’ll usually ask you to put the consumer back in the position they'd have been in if the error hadn't happened – as far as possible. This could be by paying financial compensation into their pension plan or directly to the consumer. It might mean reconstructing pension plans. 

We might also make an award for any distress and inconvenience caused.

To find out how we approach pension complaints about a specific type of pension product or service, select the relevant page link below.

• How we resolve complaints
• Before we get involved
• Time limits for businesses
• What to send us when we're dealing with a complaint about your firm
• Look at our complaints data

Businesses and consumer advisers can contact our Business Support Hub for information on how the we might look at a complaint, or for guidance on our rules and how we work. We also work with businesses and other organisations to help prevent complaints.