Complaints procedure

We understand that we may get things wrong. If we haven’t met your expectations or we’ve caused any upset, please let us know so we can resolve your concerns and try to put things right. We are committed to resolving complaints fairly and as quickly as possible, and aim to learn from our mistakes to improve going forwards.

Our Complaint Process

Our procedure as set out below applies to all concerns, whether they are received over the phone, by letter, secure message, or other electronic means (email, social media or via one of our surveys).

However we receive your complaint, we will take it seriously and carefully look into it for you.

We will try to resolve your complaint within 3 working days following the day we receive it. We will usually do this by telephone and then write to confirm that we believe we’ve resolved your complaint. If appropriate, this response will tell you how you can refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Pensions Ombudsman.

Complaints that need further investigation

If we haven’t resolved your complaint within 3 days or you do not accept our response, we will acknowledge your complaint in writing promptly, giving you details on how to contact us about your complaint.

We will continue to investigate to find out what has gone wrong, and what needs to be done to put things right.

If we haven’t been able to resolve your complaint, we’ll contact you within 4 weeks to give you an update. And if we have not finished investigating your complaint after 8 weeks, we will write to you to:

• explain why we have not been able to reach a decision
• let you know when you can expect our final decision
• if appropriate, tell you how you can refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Pensions Ombudsman should you be unhappy about the delay

Resolving your complaint

After carefully investigating your complaint, a member of our Resolutions team will let you know the outcome of your complaint in a written Final Response.

We use artificial intelligence (AI) within our organisation and for complaint handling we use it to help document some complaints and to support writing our responses. When we use AI, it will use details about your complaint and our investigation into it, as well as your name and address to create a draft response. This draft response will always be reviewed and finalised by the person investigating your complaint. Please be assured, we do not use AI to undertake any investigation or to make any decisions about your complaint, this is always done by a member of our staff.

What if you remain unhappy?

If you are not happy with our Final Response, or we haven’t provided a response within 8 weeks, you may be entitled to refer your complaint to one of the relevant bodies shown below.
 

• Financial Ombudsman Service Exchange Tower 183 Marsh Wall London E14 9SR
  Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
  Helpline: 0800 023 4567 or 0300 123 9123
  www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
• The Pensions Ombudsman 10 South Colonnade Canary Wharf London E14 4PU
  Email: enquiries@pensions-ombudsman.org.uk