Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Pensions Ombudsman on the adequacy of the time taken for complaints to be resolved.

I recently met with the Pensions Ombudsman and Chief Operating Officer to discuss performance of the organisation and significant increases in requests for The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) services. The time taken by TPO to resolve cases is dependent on several factors often external to TPO. For example, the complexity of the complaint, Ombudsman jurisdiction, and response times taken by the industry and the complainant to reply to information gathering requests from TPO.

In response to these pressures, TPO have implemented an Operating Model Review (OMR) programme. DWP are working closely with TPO to rigorously monitor the impact the OMR is having on the complaint management and resolution of cases.