The Pensions Ombudsman has seen enquires increase by 22 per cent year-on-year, with more than 6,000 complaints received in 2016/17.

Its Annual Reports and Accounts revealed that of the enquiries received, around 70 per cent were made online as a result of a new online facility from the Ombudsman launched in April 2016.

Commenting on the report, Pensions Ombudsman Anthony Arter said: “We have had another busy year with a 22 per cent increase in enquiries. This is perhaps a result of the increasing awareness of the value of pensions and the difficulty in understanding whether the rules, and/or legislation, has been applied correctly.”

Despite the increase in the number of complaints, the Ombudsman took on 1,333 cases for investigation, which is slightly less than in 2015/16. During the year, 1,404 cases were completed by the Ombudsman, which is a 7 per cent increase on last year. Seventy per cent of cases were resolved informally by the Ombudsman’s adjudicators and 30 per cent formally with an Ombudsman’s decision. Of the cases formally decided by an Ombudsman, 33 per cent were upheld or partly upheld.

Cases about the actions of the Pension Protection Fund continued to form a small part of its work, with 17 new cases for investigation accepted in the year. Pension liberation cases reduced significantly – these accounted for 8 per cent of new investigations compared to 16 per cent in 2015/6. However, complaints about transfers (such as the calculation or payment of transfer values) and complaints about overpayment of benefits (usually that the overpaid benefits are being clawed back) have increased and now appear in the top 10 topics.

“In spite of the increase in the volume of enquiries and accepted investigations, with the introduction of new working practices a higher proportion of investigations are now completed within six months – 40 per cent compared with 25 per cent in the previous year,” Arter added.

“The past year was a time of consolidating our new approach for the resolution of disputes, 70 per cent of which are now informally resolved. This approach is also aligned with our communication strategy to ensure that the customer journey is further improved. Another strategic development has been our increased focus on stakeholder engagement – in particular with the large public sector schemes, insurance companies and others involved in the pension industry."

The average time to complete investigations once they were allocated to adjudicators was, on average, three and a half months. Forty-two per cent of completed cases were resolved or the complaint withdrawn, compared to 27 per cent concluded in this way in 2015/16. Twenty-seven per cent of complaints were ended by a determination following an adjudicator’s opinion – a drop from 29 per cent in 2015/6. Two per cent of complaints result in a determination following an Ombudsman’s preliminary decision– as far fewer investigations follow this very formal process. Arter said that by working together, pension disputes can be resolved much earlier in the process which can enhance the publics’ trust in pension saving and in the providers.

The Pensions Ombudsman Service is funded by grant-in-aid paid by the Department for Work and Pensions. The grant-in-aid is recovered from the general levy on pension schemes that is invoiced and collected by The Pensions Regulator. The levy is set by and owed to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. In 2016/17 the organisation received £3,900,000 grant-in-aid, incurred net expenditure of £4,139,502 and had net liabilities at 31 March 2017 of £33,115. Its agreed budget for the period was £3,803,000.

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