The Pensions Ombudsman Reviews 

A disgrace to humanity. A fetid cesspit of corruption and negligence. Knowing I am terminally ill and that my civil service pensions administrator has refused to respond to several complaints from me over a year, Pensions Ombudsman strung me along for a year (taking several months to respond to my chasers and giving e different excuses for not taking on my complaint) only to tell me there is another process i must first go through before they will consider my complaint.
I'm convinced they are hoping I will die before my pensions administrator is held to account.

My ref is CAS 131930 k4w1

This organisation is on a par with demonic corporations like NHS, run by individuals who feed off suffering and misery.

Edit: update 17 Jul 25. After stringing me along from Aug 24 to June 25 to come to the conclusion there was nothing they wanted to do about my complaint, in the ultimate display of irony, they responded PREMATURELY to a service complaint about themselves. Yes that's right. They responded to a service complaint I had not yet made.
All i did was ask for the complaints address. Being terminally ill, i had not got round to making a complaint yet. Imagine my surprise when I received a response to the complaint i'd not yet made! How did they even know the content of my future complaint or the outcomes for resolution? Hahaha! I guess they have a complaint responses template ready to churn out to try and save time.
You literally cannot make this up. If only they were as good at responding to pensions complaints as they are at responding to complaints youve not yet made. Do they have a time machine?

Edit: its now 2026 and I still cannot access my pension

They will not help if your pension company won’t respond to over 75 enquiries. Then 6 months later suddenly came up with a form/procedure I must use they fail to mention months earlier. I suggest court action rather than these. My pension company won’t give me the form.

TPO took over four years to review my case!
I had read the reviews before submitting my complaint but believed they could be "sour grapes" because cases were not upheld!

HOW WRONG I WAS!!!

They will do their utmost to defend the position of the pension provider even if the evidence you provide is indisputable .

In my case inaccurate investigatory information was provided by TPO and quotation changed to attempt to defend the pension provider

They are inefficient ,biased and parts of their investigation they do not wish to answer will not be covered which will leave you frustrated with few options if not upheld

TPO believe they are untouchable as very few members of the public will hire a solicitor for case to go to high court due to cost,risk and low confidence in the judicial system

The present Government should start with reducing their deficit and increase efficiencies by scrapping this organisation which is funded partly by the large organisations it protects!

11 months
Severe financial hardship due to ill health.
Refuse to make Section 20 Reasonable Adjustment.
Every time I telephone they pretend to escalate and terminate the call and never call back.
Reading reviews on here everyone seems to receive the same appalling service.
They don't even bother to respond here, which speaks volumes.
Think I need to get legal advice and abandon the case which hasn't been moving anyway.
Every ombudsman is the same.
Courts have horrendous backlogs but still quicker than these clowns.

Apauling service. Took 4 years to come to the conclusion that they were out of time for the limitation period. My money is lost and they cannot do anything. Literally the worst ombudsman service I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. They suggested that I should just accept the money is lost and the former employer who lost the money is correct in saying they have no record of me.

Beyond useless, will make you lose the will to live. I have a brain tumour and need to access my civil service pension urgently. Scheme administrator been refusing to communicate for 8 months. Been in touch with Ombudsman for 7 months.
During that time they have tried to discourage me from a formal complaint, told me to do informal resolution - made all kinds of promises.

Used my last energy reserves to put my case together. Straight away it was clear the person dealing was clueless about my case, kept asking questions he would have known had he read my case.

He then said there was nothing he could do because my pension provider was not answering his emails. N0 Sh1t! That's why I came to you.

Meanwhile my health is deteriorating and I'm sure I'll be dead before this matter is resolved. I wanted my money for neurosurgery but never mind, I'll just die instead.

Person handling my case Ian F. proceeded to make highly offensive and insensitive comments - strongly suggest he be given a crash course in the Equality Act.

Beyond disgusted.

I've had over two years wait for the pension ombudsman service to review a pension dispute for them to get back to me to say there will be a further 18month (1 year and a half) before they will allocate to a specialist advisor, disgusting service, don't bother they should be replaced for something fit for purpose!!

Having read other reviews, there's not a great deal I can add, other than they have a knack of turning it back on you so you end up investigating your own complaint, so unless you have qualifications in the pension service the pension ombudsman is a waste of time

Absolute useless waste of resources. Pathetic excuse for an establishment that doesn't merit any sane person thinking it merits using it. Meant to help settle pension issues, its as useful as flatulence for fresh air.

A very disappointing first encounter with the service - and I did not have high expectations to begin with, having come across UK's understaffed and unmotivated ombudsman services. A very long wait for a case worker to be assigned - many months, maybe even a year? - and then a quickie verdict, of finding no fault with the company and proposing to close the case.

The pension Ombudsman our extremely poor service , they do not see the bigger picture.
Especially after the High court ruling concerning the merchant navy ratings pension scheme. You give them all the Evidence you need and say you’re out of time . Like the
Merchant navy ratings pension scheme did to be .the high court ruling was in 2022 it dates back to 1993 . In the high court judgement the judge ruled you can use the pension ombudsman I did and they our a disgrace not helpful did not know about my complaint according to the pension ombudsman saying it’s out of date unbelievable the high court judgement doesn’t count ? Confused never ever use the pension ombudsman take it to court yourself like I have just done . Terry Anderson

Totally and utterly useless organisation. It will take them 1 year and 4 months to even look at my case. Can any pensioner wait this amount of time without a pension!

A corrupt organisation. They are god!!

an organisation without meaning or purpose, over managed and obsessed with its identity and itself. Write to the pensions minister to raise concerns. Board team needs a decisive clear out.

I complained in August 2020. After chasing an update, in March 2022 I was told my case is waiting to be assigned to an adjuducator. In December 2022 after chasing for a further update I was told it could take another 15 months for my case to be allocated to an adjudicator. Now its March 2024 and 15 months on from my last update so I chased another. Their response is that it could take a further 8 months for my case to be allocated to an adjudicator. What sort of service is this nearly 4 years since making the complaint and still waiting. I am sure most people would not bother to complain if these time limits were shown on their website. I can only hope for some justice after this long wait.

My case has finally been determined after some 2.5 yrs. They will say they are underfunded by central government. I thought the investigation by the Ombudsman on appeal was poor. There was an instance when he said he did not know what a particular allowance bought. Instead of asking me or the employer (HMRC) he speculated wrongly and that informed his decision the reject my claim. Who quality checks their investigations (Post Office investigations...?)

I complained regarding an issue with my pension in March 2023 and in May they told me it will take them 10 months to decide whether the complaint is within their jurisdiction! Judging by the comments here, they will either reject my complaint or just not respond.

This body is completely useless. More than 6 years ago I wrote a series of letters complaining about the removal of my pension for 6 years by the DWP.
I am one of 3.6 million women making the complaint.
Last week (on 17 November 2023) the Ombudsman refused to make a decision and handed it back to the DWP! A complete waste of time.

Absolutely disgusting service and if I could give 0 stars I would. First time using the service and I have waited 6 months already with no resolution to then be told it could take 10 months plus. Really what is the point of the service when you have to wait so long. It is appalling and if I had known this at the beginning I wouldn’t have bothered. Complete waste of time.

They cannot be bothered to look at the complaint. Still struggling with the Pension company and the ombudsman cannot be bothered