XPS Administration takes almost 120 days on average to transfer pension funds to another provider, according to data by My Pension Expert.
Data from more than 3,950 pension transfers in the 2022-23 financial year found that, on average, consumers must wait almost one month (29 days) for ceding companies to transfer their pension funds to a new provider.
Customers with some pension providers could wait for anything between 120 days on average (XPS Administration) down to 18 days (Prudential), depending on which firm their pensions pots were with.
XPS topped the list, followed by DHL Pension Department (65 days), Willis Towers Watson (62 days), Nest (60 days), The People’s Pension (59 days) and Scottish Friendly (58 days).
Gary Davies, operations director at XPS Administration, said: "We take our obligations to our members seriously. Throughout the DC pension transfer process, our primary focus is on protecting scheme members from losing their pension to a potential scam, and we must balance our ambition to process transfers in a timely manner with this need to protect members."
Davies said in 2021, anti-scam regulations came into force which led to increasing timescales for transfers to other providers.
"Our processing time, in addition to the MoneyHelper call, is averaging around 17 days," he said. "However, the average time taken for scheme members to arrange the MoneyHelper appointment, and for the member to return the proof that the call has taken place, was around 80 days over 2022 and 2023.
"Under the new regulations, many transfers require a call with MoneyHelper before they can be paid, which can delay the process."
He added that XPS's average transfer turnaround time so far in 2023 has shown an improvement of over 12 per cent since 2022.
"We are actively working with government and industry partners to seek a change in the regulations that would make routine transfers operate more smoothly," he said.
Elsewhere, a spokesperson for WTW said the firm was "committed to delivering the highest standards of service".
They said: “We receive thousands of transfer requests every year and the majority of these are transfers from complex legacy defined benefit or mixed DB/DC trust-based pensions that are more complicated and time intensive to transfer, when compared to contract-based DC scheme transfers.
“We are also committed to making robust efforts to protect members from pension scams and other nefarious attempts to cheat them out of their pension savings.”
A spokesperson for People’s Partnership, provider of The People’s Pension, said: “It’s totally misleading to say that our average transfer time stands at an average of 59 days.
“This data is based on a sample size of 43 people, compared with the tens of thousands of transfers we process each year.
“It also includes the time taken for a member or receiving scheme to provide full information on the requirements and details needed for us to comply with regulations and process the transfer.”
The firm said it is not possible to start or process a transfer without this information, which is required for consumer protection.
“The industry-recognised transfer figures show that our transfer times for last month stand at 18 days. We continually work to reduce these times,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Nest said: “At Nest, we’re always looking at ways to improve our transfer process to ensure it is efficient, easy to use, and robust. Our average transfer time is 21 days.
My Pension Expert’s 2023 Retirement Fairness Index is measured from the date an application was submitted to a pension provider to when My Pension Expert received confirmation that the fund had been transferred.
Lily Megson, policy director at My Pension Expert, said the data spans almost 4,000 pension transfers and clearly demonstrates that retirement planners in the UK are having to wait “far too long”.
“It is a significant issue and one that the government and pension sector must work together to address,” Megson said.
“The process is too often slow and opaque, leaving the customer wondering where their funds are and why providers are taking so much time to transfer them across.
“While we must accept that this cannot happen instantaneously – security checks and due diligence is required – we must fight against what has become an accepted notion in the industry that pension transfers can take weeks if not months to be completed. It is not good enough and undermines people’s trust in the pensions sector.”
sonia.rach@ft.com
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