Appeals (IDRP)

If you are unhappy about a decision relating to your pension, please contact us to discuss your concerns before making a formal complaint. Many problems that members have are resolved in this way.

They may be the result of a misunderstanding or incorrect information, which can be explained or put right easily. An informal enquiry of this kind may save you a lot of time and trouble.

If you are still not happy you have the right to ask for the decision to be looked at again under the formal complaints procedure. The complaints procedure’s official name is the Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure (IDRP).

The process is :

• In the first instance you should write to the person nominated by the body who made the decision about which you wish to appeal. You must do this within six months of the date of notification of the decision, act or omission about which you are complaining (or such longer period as the nominated person considers reasonable).
• The nominated person will consider your complaint and notify you of his or her decision.
  If you are dissatisfied with that decision you may, within six months of the date of the decision, apply to your local pension fund administrator to have it reconsidered by a suitably authorised officer.

Data protection complaints

If you consider that the Fund has infringed data protection legislation because of the way we have handled your personal information (or the personal information of someone you are acting on behalf of), you can complain to the Fund. 

To complain, you do not have to use legal terms or quote sections of the legislation.

For example, people may submit complaints about:

• The way the Fund has responded to a subject access request (SAR), or other rights request.
• The security measures the Fund has used to store your information (e.g. someone who has been impacted by a data breach); or
• How the Fund collected or used your personal information (e.g. where the Fund stored it, how long we have kept it for, or its accuracy).

A complaint about service or other matters, whilst also exercising a member’s data protection rights.
This does not count as a data protection complaint.

For example:

• As a member you raise may raise a grievance issue, also request copies of their personal information; or
• As a member you may complain about a customer service issue, also request that the Fund delete their information.

I have followed IDRP but my issue is still unresolved?

If you have a complaint or dispute which has gone through IDRP, but you are still unhappy with the response, you can contact:

The Pensions Ombudsman

Telephone: 0800 917 4487
Website: www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk

If you have general requests for information or guidance concerning your pension arrangements contact:

Moneyhelper
Moneyhelper offers impartial help and is free to use, whether that’s online or over the phone.

Opening times: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Website: www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-problems
Telephone: 0800 011 3797