If you are in any doubt about your benefit entitlements, or have a problem or question about your LGPS membership or benefits, please contact us. We can sort out most problems in this way. They are often caused by misunderstandings or wrong information, which can be explained or put right by your employer or the pensions section.

If you are still dissatisfied with any decision made in relation to the Scheme you have the right to have your complaint independently reviewed under the Scheme’s Internal Disputes Resolution Procedure. There are also a number of other regulatory bodies that may be able to assist you.

Here are the various ways you can ask for help with a pension problem.

Internal Disputes Resolution Procedure

In the first instance you should write to the person nominated by the body who made the decision about which you wish to appeal. You must do this within six months of the date of the notification of the decision about which you are complaining (or such longer period as the nominated person considers reasonable). This is a formal review of the initial decision and is an opportunity for it to be reconsidered. The nominated person will consider your complaint and notify you of his/her decision. If you are dissatisfied with that person’s decision, you may, within six months of the date of the decision, apply to have it reconsidered by the Administering Authority of Avon Pension Fund which is Bath & N.E. Somerset Council. Avon Pension Fund can supply you with a more detailed leaflet on the Internal Disputes Resolution Procedure together with a form to fill in. Follow the link for more detailed information regarding IDRP.

The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS)

TPAS is available at any time to assist members and beneficiaries of the Scheme in connection with any pensions query they may have or any difficulty which they cannot resolve with their scheme administrators. TPAS can be contacted at:

11 Belgrave Road
London
SW1V 1RB
Telephone: 0845 601 2923

Pensions Ombudsman

In cases where a complaint or dispute cannot be resolved after the intervention of TPAS, an application can be made, within three years of the event, to the Pensions Ombudsman for an adjudication. The Ombudsman can investigate and determine any complaint or dispute involving maladministration of the Scheme or matters of fact or law and his or her decision is final and binding (unless the case is taken to the appropriate Court on a point of law). Matters where legal proceedings have already started cannot be investigated by the Pensions Ombudsman. The Pensions Ombudsman can be contacted at:

11 Belgrave Road
London
SW1V 1RB
Telephone: 0207 834 9144