Complaints and the Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure (IDRP)

Enquiries

If you're not sure which benefits you're entitled to, or you have a problem with your pension, please either phone the number on the letter your employer or West Yorkshire Pension Fund sent you, or contact West Yorkshire Pension Fund on 01274 434999.

We or your employer will try to deal with the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Many problems members have are resolved in this way. They can be caused by simple misunderstandings or wrong information, which can be explained or put right easily. An informal inquiry of this kind can save you a lot of time and trouble.

Decisions

From the day a person starts a job with an employer to the day when benefits or dependants’ benefits are paid, the employer and the pension fund adminstrator has to make decisions under the pension scheme rules that affect you (or your dependants). When you (this includes dependants) are notified of a decision, you should check, as far as you can, that it is based on the correct details and that you agree with the decision.

Stage 1

If you need to make a formal complaint, you should make it

• in writing, using the application form on this page and
• normally within six months of the day when you were told of the decision you want to complain about.

Your complaint will be considered carefully by a person nominated by the body that took the decision against which you wish to complain. This guide calls them the adjudicator. That person is required to give you their decision in writing.

If the adjudicator’s decision is contrary to the decision you complained about, the employer or administering authority who made that original decision will now have to deal with your case in accordance with the adjudicator’s decision.

If the decision you complained about concerned the exercise of a discretion by the employer or administering authority, and the adjudicator decides that the employer or administering authority should reconsider how they exercised their discretion, they will be required to reconsider their original decision.

Stage 2

You can ask the administering authority to take a fresh look at your complaint in any of the following circumstances.

• You are not satisfied with the adjudicator’s first-stage decision
• You have not received a decision or an interim letter from the adjudicator and it is three months since you lodged your complaint
• It is one month after the date by which the adjudicator told you (in an interim letter) that they would give you a decision, and you have still not received that decision.

This review would be undertaken by a person not involved in the first stage decision.

You will need to send the administering authority your complaint in writing. The time limits for making the complaint are set out in the table starting on on page 4. The administering authority will consider your complaint and give you their decision in writing.

If you are still unhappy following the administering authority’s second-stage decision, you can take your case to The Pensions Ombudsman provided you do so within three years from the date of the original decision (or lack of a decision) about which you are complaining.

Note: The adjudicator can extend the six month time limit for a reasonable period where there are special circumstances.