Question 38
Can someone help me with my complaint?
Yes.
When you complete our application, you can nominate someone else to help you with your complaint to us – this person is known as your representative.
Your representative could be a member of your family, a friend or a professional person such as a solicitor. Please note: You are unlikely to get any costs repaid (even if your complaint is upheld) because our service is designed so that people should not normally need professional help.
We will then deal with your representative directly and all correspondence will be sent to them until you tell us to stop.
If you start to deal with us directly, and then later decide you want someone to help you, that’s fine, too. You just need to let us know who you want to be your representative.
Related questions
When someone asks us to look into a problem, they have often been trying to resolve it for some time. A lot of people feel very frustrated or distressed.
We have to be impartial and look into a problem without taking sides. Sometimes a decision that is fair in a legal sense may not seem fair to you personally.
We will always be open and honest with you about how and why we have made our decisions.
Please see our ‘How we investigate complaints’ factsheet for more details on our process and what this means to you.
Before you submit a complaint to us, you need to give the party you think is at fault a chance to put things right.
Many pension schemes or providers have their own complaints process, which is often the best way to make sure your complaint is seen by the relevant people as quickly as possible.
If your complaint is about an occupational pension scheme, you should ask for it to be dealt with under its Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure (IDRP).
See our factsheet ‘Complaining to the party/parties at fault’ for more information.
If you are not sure who you should complain to, please contact us.