Pensions Ombudsman publishes Operating Model Review document

On December 18, 2024, the Pensions Ombudsman published an update on progress over the last year, together with an update on the Operating Model Review. Our January briefing will examine in detail, the Ombudsman’s streamlined decision-making process.

The Ombudsman’s update confirms that complaints have risen 53 per cent compared to this time last year. One method the Ombudsman has used to deal with this increase is to require all complainants to try to resolve their complaint through their scheme's internal dispute resolution procedure, before they progress to the Ombudsman.

The new expedited decision-making process was launched in September 2024, involving faster decisions, and expedited determinations if required, on cases it has assessed as having a clear outcome. The Ombudsman notes that this can sometimes reduce a complainant's waiting time "by as much as 18 months".

The update confirms that there has been a reduction of "older and complex cases" by expanding the specialist working groups to include members of the Ombudsman's legal team and "upskilling" adjudicators to enable them to deal with the most complex case topics.

The Ombudsman also now employs a "lead case" approach, which is applied when an industry-wide or scheme-specific issue affecting multiple members is identified. The Ombudsman will select a representative "lead case" to accelerate through its processes. This can be done by:

• Taking on a single case while the others remain in the scheme's own IDRP. The final determination then informs the IDRP cases.
• If the IDRP cases have already completed the formal process and applications have been submitted to the Ombudsman, if the material facts of a group of cases are very similar, the Ombudsman's findings in the lead case can often be applied to all the linked cases.