The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) has confirmed that it will continue to increase its operational efficiency in order to address issues around growing caseloads and wait times, targeting a further 4 per cent year-on-year improvement target for 2025/26.

In a blog post, TPO chief operating officer, Robert Loughlin, reflected on the success of the Operating Model Review (OMR) improvement programme, arguing that results from the first year of the programme have been "excellent", with a record volume of complaints concluded during the year.

"The reforms that we have already implemented have been well received across the pensions industry and we have been working closely with stakeholders and with our internal teams to identify further changes that we will be taking forward this year," he continued.

"These will build on the gains that have already been achieved such as our revised approach to dealing with complaints that have not been through scheme level dispute resolution, our new expedited determination approach and expanding the use of ‘lead cases’."

Loughlin also confirmed that TPO will be publishing "much more detail" on its performance in its upcoming Annual Report and Accounts, which are due to be laid in parliament in the summer.

However, despite the improvements already made and a "Herculean effort", Loughlin acknowledged that TPO was only able to maintain the status quo around its waiting times in 2024/25, arguing that this was an "unprecedented" year with the number of new complaints also growing by much more than expected.

"The impact that our improvements have on the historical backlog and our waiting times will largely depend on the volumes of new complaints that we receive in the months and years ahead," he continued.

"We are also working closely with our Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) colleagues to set out the case for investment in TPO. In the longer term we will be looking for investment in our systems to enable automation and AI to transform our ways of working."

However, Loughlin acknowledged that "unfortunately, there is no quick answer to the challenges that we face around the caseload and the growing volumes of complaints that we are seeing – much of which remains outside our control as an organisation".

"Our strategy for tackling it, however, remains clear," he stated. "We will continue to increase our operational efficiency, we will work with the sector to reduce demand wherever possible, and we will work with our colleagues at DWP and our wider stakeholders to find a long-term solution to the funding gap that we face."

As part of this work, TPO will be looking to improve industry awareness, providing information and tools to both schemes and individual applicants to support earlier dispute resolution.

TPO will also be working to bring in pensions expertise at the earliest stage of its process, as Loughlin said that the group will continue to expand its pensions experience to identify and resolve complaints much earlier in the process.

"We will continue to explore our thresholds to ensure we only focus on those complaints that need our help and cannot be dealt with elsewhere," he added.

In addition to this, Loughlin highlighted the role of expedited determinations, confirming that TPO will look to expand the use of expedited determinations throughout the entire organisation.

It will also streamline the current process for jurisdiction decisions and when it asks respondents for a formal response to the applicant’s complaint, which is expected to have a positive impact on reducing waiting times.

The upcoming year (2025/26) is also expected to see a key focus on the large cohort of complex cases that have built up, which will involve a focus on learning and development to increase our pensions expertise and new innovative ways of working to streamline and speed up our decision-making.

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