Pensions - Articles - Complaints about pension products on the rise

 “SIPPs and SSASs continue to play a major role in the pensions jigsaw for large numbers of people. They plug the gap that auto-enrolment schemes leave for the self-employed, high earners and those looking to make use of different rules and options. In particular, they play a key role in the delivery of retirement freedoms. There’s clearly been a rise in claim volumes with the FOS – something that the FSCS has responded to earlier in the year.

 The reason for the rise is less clear from the data, other than a loose reference to advice and administration. It may be that SIPP and SSAS members and their advisers are struggling to come to terms with upheaval in tax rules and regulation – and complexity in the system generally.

 There are also still a high volume of problematic transfer requests to suspected pensions liberation scams to SSASs. It may simply be that there are growing numbers of SIPP and SSAS members (perhaps as a result of pension freedoms) – and therefore the rise in claims is proportionate to the rise in membership numbers.”