Who do I complain to about my pension?

Pension complaints split along one line: was the problem in the advice you were given, or in the administration of the scheme? Choosing the wrong scheme costs months.

The two ombudsmen

• The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) handles maladministration and disputes of fact or law about what you are actually entitled to under the rules — benefit calculation errors, incorrect transfer values, refusal of ill-health early retirement, disputed pension increases, delays in payment, and the exercise of discretion over death benefits. That second limb is unusual and valuable: TPO can decide what your benefits are, not merely criticise the process.
• The Financial Ombudsman Service handles advice and sales — being advised to transfer out of a defined benefit scheme, an unsuitable product, misleading projections, or a SIPP operator's failure of due diligence on a high-risk investment.

Start internally either way. Every occupational scheme must have an Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure, usually two stages ending with the trustees. Write to the administrator quoting your membership number, give a dated chronology, identify the scheme rule you say was misapplied, and state the remedy. If the scheme misses its own IDRP deadlines you can go to TPO without waiting.

Deadlines and what each can order

TPO normally requires a complaint within 3 years of the act or omission, or of when you knew or ought to have known about it, with discretion to extend. The FOS requires referral within 6 months of the firm's final response, subject to longstops of 6 years from the event or 3 years from knowledge. Both are free.

TPO offers an informal Early Resolution route first; if that fails, an adjudicator issues an opinion and, if rejected, the Ombudsman makes a determination on the documents. It can order benefits recalculated, a transfer reinstated, financial loss paid with interest, records corrected, and a modest sum for distress. There is no cap on the financial-loss element — the main practical difference from the FOS. A determination is final, binding on all parties and enforceable as a county court order, appealable only on a point of law.

Neither ombudsman touches the State Pension. National Insurance record errors go to HMRC, then the Adjudicator's Office, then the PHSO via your MP; State Pension service failures go through DWP complaints and the Independent Case Examiner. Where you disagree with an entitlement decision rather than the service, the route is mandatory reconsideration and appeal — and complaining does not pause that clock.