The number of pension transfer complaints landing at the Financial Ombudsman Service has fallen, as have enquiries and uphold rates.
After years of problems in the sector, the Fos said this morning it had received fewer new cases about pension transfers in the third quarter of last year than in the second, with new cases dropping from 213 to 186 and the percentage of cases upheld falling from 41 per cent to 35 per cent.
Occupational transfer related enquiries also fell, from 254 to 177, between the October to December quarter and the preceding three months.
Self-invested personal pension (Sipp) complaints meanwhile fell by 4 per cent, but the rate of claims being upheld increased.
The Fos received 786 new Sipp-related cases from October to December 2020, of which 63 per cent were upheld.
This compared with the previous quarter, July to September, when the Fos received 821 new cases of which 57 per cent were upheld.
But the number of enquiries received about Sipps has continued to grow, with 706 made in Q3, an increase of 5 per cent on Q2.
The number of enquiries the service received in relation to personal pensions meanwhile has fallen, from 980 in the second quarter of 2020/21 to 886 in the third, while the number of new cases jumped from 825 in Q2 to 897 in Q3.
The uphold rate on these cases has fallen from 27 per cent in Q2 to 17 per cent in Q3.
The ombudsman's pension workload has been shaped by Sipp claims amid an upward trajectory of mis-selling claims in recent years.
But these are expected to flatten out as historic cases are resolved.
amy.austin@ft.com
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