Clerical Medical / Scottish Widows Complaint - appalling service not releasing funds

Peggykay

Withdrawal request sent October 2021 , fobbed off continuously through November, December, absolutely appalling customer service hours on the phone, (previously in 2019 same withdrawal request took 10 days for funds released )… our Investments (2 Trusts) set up 2012 with Scottish Widows, in 2019 it was Scottish Widows and there service was very good, HOWEVER it is all handles now by CLERICAL MEDICAL … we started Complaint procedure on 4th January 2022, on 1st March the Financial Ombudsman has told us they will take it up as THE F.O. protocol is Clerical Medical have 8 weeks.   

dunstonh

ur Investments (2 Trusts) set up 2012 with Scottish Widows, in 2019 it was Scottish Widows and there service was very good, HOWEVER it is all handles now by CLERICAL MEDICAL …

Clerical Medical is owned by Lloyds Bank just as Scottish Widows is.   Lloyds decided to close  Clerical Medical for new business and all Clerical Medical servicing was transferred to Scottish Widows.   Not the other way around.     The address used handles both SW and CM policies and its not uncommon for paperwork from that office to sometimes show with CM branding and sometimes SW branding.   In reality, you need to ignore whether it says CM or SW.    Its effectively SW.

There have been other posts on the board from people doing UFPLS or small pots claims with SW taking longer than normal.  So, you are not alone.

we started Complaint procedure on 4th January 2022, on 1st March the Financial Ombudsman has told us they will take it up as THE F.O. protocol is Clerical Medical have 8 weeks.   

Scottish Widows have up to  8 weeks to resolve the complaint before you then get access to the FOS.  The FOS cannot review your complaint before then unless SW give their response and you disagree with it.    SW may take longer than 8 weeks.   They may take less.      The FOS themselves are also on a bit of a go slow and taking longer than normal.       It is likely the transaction will complete long before the 8 weeks are up and SW will give their complaint response without you needing to refer to the FOS.