The outcome of around 45 pension liberation complaints that are currently with the Pensions Ombudsman are unlikely to be published until July, a two month-delay on its original estimate.
The decisions were meant to be published in April or May but, although the ombudsman is “nearing decisions on them... it is unlikely they will be published before July”.
Speaking to FTAdviser, Tony King, pensions ombudsman, attributed the delays to “complexity” and “the need to have the full picture”. He also said there has been “no dramatic change in numbers”.
In February 2014, the ombudsman said it was dealing with around 45 complaints regarding pension liberation, with the majority of complaints concerning providers who did not allow a transfer to a pension liberation scheme.
At the time, ombudsman had just under 40 complaints from people whose pension provider disallowed a transfer because the provider believes that its purpose is pension liberation. In October 2013, there were only eight of these cases.
The number has recently risen because of two groups of complaints about transfers to two different arrangements. It would not be right to describe this as a “flood”, the ombudsman said.
A handful of complaints are from people who did transfer but into arrangements that were subsequently effectively frozen due to regulatory action.
