The league tables analyse 12,852 requests for information made by Portal Financial on behalf of 7,913 clients to 1,396 different defined contribution (money purchase) and defined benefit pension providers.
While in this electronic age a money purchase (DC) pension takes on average between 1.5 and 5 weeks, the disparity is much larger with defined benefit schemes, ranging on average between 1.9 and 12.4 weeks.
How long a consumer waits appears to be a matter of chance as to which pension provider they are with. The Royal Mail, whose scheme was set up before its privatisation, consistently takes around three months to provide information, as does First UK Bus Pension. First Bus actually won the Professional Pensions UK ‘Pension Scheme of the Year’ award in 2009 but is now the slowest provider of information. Halifax, the fastest money purchase provider, averages 1.5 weeks by comparison.
Portal Financial wants a cap on the time it takes to complete a transfer, in a similar way to developments in the energy and banking sectors where companies are committed to completing transfers within 17 and 7 days, respectively. Ideally, it wants open access to all regulated advisers who have a client authority to request information on their behalf.
Jamie Smith-Thompson, managing director of Portal Financial, said: “Some defined benefit schemes process requests at a similar level to the best money purchase schemes, so there is no justification for providers to take so long in providing basic information. In some cases the stress of these unnecessary delays genuinely affects the health of clients.
“Many pension schemes are unable, or unwilling, to support the pension freedoms and members therefore need to transfer to access their funds. In an age of cloud computing and instant connectivity we are still measuring the time it takes for pension schemes to provide a simple information response in weeks and months rather than seconds. This is an area where the regulator needs to step in to impose a time limit, and ultimately open data standards, so that clients can be advised and be able to manage their pension savings in a reasonable timescale.”
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