The Financial Services & Pensions Ombudsman CANNOT in any circumstances investigate a complaint about a pension provider which relates to:

• A. A a dispute of fact or law.
• B. B a former member of a pension arrangement.
• C. C compliance of trustees with the Pensions Act.
• D. D maladministration.

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is understanding what the ombudsman can and cannot investigate. The Financial Services & Pensions Ombudsman handles complaints about how a pension provider or trustees administered or managed a pension, including cases of maladministration and disputes of fact or law arising from that administration, and complaints from current or former members about how the scheme was run. However, issues that deal with whether trustees complied with the Pensions Act are matters of statutory compliance and regulation, not disputes over administration or mismanagement. Those are handled by regulatory bodies or the courts, not by the ombudsman. So a complaint focused on trustees’ compliance with the Pensions Act falls outside the ombudsman’s remit. The other types of concerns fit within its investigative scope because they concern how things were actually administered or decided, not formal legal compliance with statute.