Before you complain to us
Before bringing a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman, you should raise your complaint with the respondents. If the complaint relates to a personal pension, or is against an employer or administrator of an occupational pension scheme, you should raise the matter in writing with them. If the respondents and you are unable to resolve matters, the Ombudsman may be able to consider it.
If a complaint is against the trustees or the managers who are responsible for running an occupational pension scheme, you need to follow a more formal procedure – the scheme’s internal dispute resolution procedure (IDRP). By law, the Ombudsman cannot investigate your complaint until it has been through this procedure.
Under the IDRP, any person with an interest in a pension scheme can put their complaint about the scheme to those who are responsible for running it.
The
IDRP
will be set up by the trustees or managers of the scheme. It can have one or two stages. If you have completed the procedure, you will be told this in writing and referred to this office.
A few complaints are exempt from having to go through the
IDRP. If you do not know if your scheme or your complaint is exempt, you should contact your pension scheme administrator who will confirm the position for you.
