Important information: The service provided by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman is free of charge. We will never seek payment from you to progress a complaint.

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How to make a complaint
to the FSPO

What are the time limits?

Complaints must be made to the FSPO within 6 years of the date of the conduct complained of.

There is an alternative time limit for complaints about a long-term financial service or about a pension provider. Those complaints must be made within 3 years from the date you became aware, or you should reasonably have become aware, of the conduct complained of.

There are some additional requirements that the FSPO must consider when applying the time limits to complaints about a long-term financial service or about a pension provider:

  • The conduct complained of must have occurred on or after 1 Jan 2002 for a complaint about a long-term financial service, and the long-term financial service must not have expired more than 6 years before the date of the complaint to the FSPO
  • The conduct complained of must have occurred on or after 13 April 1996 for a complaint about a pension provider

In certain circumstances, the FSPO has discretion to consider a complaint that falls outside these timeframes.

Where a question arises as to whether a complaint has been made to the FSPO within the time limits, the FSPO may carry out a jurisdictional assessment.