Referrals from other Ombudsman services
Dear Ombudsman for the Board of the Pension Protection Fund,
The Pensions Ombudsman Service has recently confirmed that it will not accept complaints that are referred to it by other Ombudsman services, instead requiring complainants to complete its own complaints form on the basis that the referred complaint is "not valid". It has failed to explain what it means by "not valid", but this refusal is apparently based on its belief that it will otherwise be in breach of data protection legislation.
Clearly, this policy leads directly to additional unnecessary form-filling on the part of the complainant and displays an unacceptable and unhelpful attitude towards the general public as the primary users of its services.
My query to you is "Do you accept complaints referred to you by other Ombudsman services or do you, like the Pensions Ombudsman Service, refuse such referrals and require complainants to complete your own complaints forms even when the referred complaint contains all necessary information for the complaint to be investigated?"
Thank you for your email. Your enquiry is important to us and we will look
into the email and respond in due course.
Please note that, due to the high volume of enquiries we are currently
experiencing, it is taking longer than we would expect to respond. We are
very sorry for any inconvenience caused by the delay and thank you for
your patience.
If you would like to discuss your enquiry with one of our Enquiries
Specialists please call us on 0800 917 4487 (if you live overseas please
dial: +44 (0) 207 630 2200). However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are
having to work differently and our lines are quite busy. Our phone lines
are currently open Monday to Friday from 10am – 2pm, excluding public
holidays.
Alternatively, you can find out if your enquiry is something we can help
you with by visiting our website at [1]www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk. On
our website you can also:
• Submit a complaint to us and use our interactive tool to see if your
complaint is something we can consider, at
[2]https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/ma...
• Visit our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), where you can find
answers to our most common enquiries we receive, at
[3]https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/fa...
References
Visible links
1. http://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/
2. https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/ma...
3. https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/faqs
Dear Mr Crorie,
Thank you for your email.
Your request will be handled as a Freedom of Information Request under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. You can expect a full response, no later
than 26 September 2022.
Kind regards,
Siobhan
Siobhan Cuming│Information Governance Manager│ 020 7630 2753
[1]www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk
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Dear Mr Crorie,
Please find attached a formal response to your Freedom of Information
Request.
If you have any questions, please do let me know.
Kind regards,
Siobhan
Siobhan Cuming│Information Governance Manager│ 020 7630 2753
[1]www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk
Follow us on: Twitter │LinkedIn
Dear Information Management,
Thank you for your response, in which you state "Finally, we need to formally document that an individual is happy for us to contact the relevant parties to the complaint on their behalf. This is a legal requirement; therefore, we ask individuals to sign this declaration before we can take up their pension complaint."
It would appear that, like the Pensions Ombudsman Service, your interpretation of "legal requirement" is based on the mistaken belief that this is required by the UK GDPR, and is contrary to the current interpretation of the same legislation by the Local Government And Social Care Ombudsman, which uses the following formal agreements to comply with the UK GDPR in order to accept referrals from other Ombudsman services, such as are refused by you:
- Joint Data Controller Agreement with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman;
- Information Sharing Agreement and Memorandum Of Understanding with the Care Quality Commission (CQC);
- Information Sharing Agreement with The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted);
- etc.
Please clarify the legislation that imposes the abovementioned "legal requirement", or - if the relevant legislation is indeed the UK GDPR - outline why you have chosen not to implement one or more of the above methods in order to accept referrals from the Financial Services Ombudsman whilst remaining compliant with GDPR requirements.
Yours sincerely,
R M Crorie
Dear Mr Crorie,
Thank you for your email.
As stated in my response, we need to formally document that an individual
is happy for us to contact the relevant parties to the complaint on their
behalf. To clarify, this refers to the other parties to the complaint,
i.e., the respondents or those against which the complaint is being made.
This could be an individual, or a company and could be a pensions
administrator or employer.
It does not refer to sharing data with another organisation by way of a
referral. Therefore, in these circumstances, it would not be appropriate
to set up a data sharing agreement with the respondents of a pension
complaint.
Kind regards,
Siobhan
Siobhan Cuming│Information Governance Manager│ 020 7630 2753
[1]www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk
Follow us on: Twitter │LinkedIn
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