pension Regulator v Pension Ombudsman

w00519772

I currently have a problem with my pension plan (see previous questions). It is being investigated internally and I hope it will come to a satisfactory conclusion. However, in case it is not I want to understand the difference between:

1) pensions regulator
2) pension ombudsman
3) pensions advisory group

Is the pension regulator a mediator like acas. Is the ombudsman like an industrial tribunal? How does the pensions advisory group fit in?

jamesd

The Pensions Regulator is responsible for overall regulation of certain classes of pension, those related to employment. Mediation is not part of its role.

The Pensions Ombudsman is responsible for resolving individual complaints about most types of pension, not just workplace ones. An ombudsman is a neutral third party required to make a considered decision but it's not a tribunal and won't normally involve in-person consultations. A limited degree of mediation to help each party understand the positions can be part of the process but that is not the primary job. Investigation to determine the full and complete real facts is quite commonly required, as is taking a view on how certain facts should be interpreted and how and why individuals and firms acted in certain ways and whether anyone is lying.

The pensions advisory group is a term with no legal status or defined meaning and is used as the name of a specific company, as the title of groups of staff in various companies who do some advising or negotiating and in a range of other meanings.

hyubh

w00519772 wrote: »

Is the pension regulator a mediator like acas. Is the ombudsman like an industrial tribunal? How does the pensions advisory group fit in?

By 'pensions advisory group' did you mean The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS)? TPAS can act like a mediator, so I think you may have mixed them up with the Pensions Regulator, which instead monitors schemes to ensure they follow statutory their statutory obligations (as distinct from getting involved in individual disputes):

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/pension-problems/making-a-complaint/how-we-can-help

The Pensions Ombudsman, in contrast, is someone who hears and rules on individual disputes as a quasi-judge (the rulings of the Ombudsman has the legal status of the rulings of a judge). Before taking any issue to the Ombudsman however, the complainant needs to have formally complained according to their pension scheme's own internal disputes procedures:

https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/our-service/personal-and-occupational-pensions/individuals-pension-scheme-members/