A sharp fall, but not a sudden one
In the most recent 90-day window tracked by Veste, the Financial Ombudsman published 285 pension decisions with an uphold rate of 31.6%. In the prior 90-day window, it published 249 decisions with an uphold rate of 47.2%. That is a fall of 15.6 percentage points, alongside a rise in decision volume of 36 cases, or 14.5%. Both windows meet Veste's minimum sample threshold of 30 decisions, so this is not a case of a handful of decisions swinging a small sample. It is a genuine change in outcome mix across a caseload that also grew.
The uphold rate used throughout this analysis follows Veste's standard definition: (fully upheld decisions plus half of partially upheld decisions) divided by total decisions. This matters for pensions specifically, because a meaningful share of pension decisions are partially upheld rather than fully upheld or fully rejected, and the weighting affects the headline figure.
The numbers behind the movement
Across the full Pension dataset held by Veste, spanning decisions from 8 April 2013 to 15 June 2026, there have been 15,579 published decisions. Of these, 6,599 were upheld, 1,344 were partially upheld and 7,636 were not upheld, giving an overall uphold rate of 46.7% across the entire 13-year run. That long-run average sits well above the 31.6% recorded in the most recent 90-day window, and also above the corpus-wide baseline uphold rate across all Financial Ombudsman product categories, which stands at 28.8% based on 401,815 decisions with an outcome. Pension complaints have historically been upheld more often than the average Ombudsman complaint, though the latest window has narrowed that gap considerably.
The monthly series, covering 25 months from June 2024 to June 2026, shows the recent fall is not an isolated blip. Monthly uphold rates were relatively strong through much of 2024 and into early 2025: 51.0% in July 2024, 51.3% in November 2024, 51.4% in March 2025, and 53.6% in May 2025. From the second half of 2025 the pattern shifts. September 2025 recorded a 36.2% uphold rate on 127 decisions. By early 2026 the monthly rate had drifted lower still: 35.4% in April 2026 on 72 decisions, 28.8% in May 2026 on 92 decisions, and 24.4% in June 2026 on just 39 decisions. That final month sits right at Veste's minimum sample size and should be read cautiously, but the direction across five or six consecutive months is consistently downward rather than a single-month anomaly.
The yearly picture confirms a longer decline
Year-on-year figures reinforce this. In 2023, the annual pension uphold rate was 60.9% across 2,368 decisions, the highest of the years Veste has on record for this product. It fell to 50.5% in 2024 across 1,567 decisions, then to 43.8% in 2025 across 1,394 decisions, and stands at 38.3% so far in 2026 across 498 decisions (a partial year, so this figure will move as more 2026 decisions are published). In 2022, the rate was 46.6% across 1,776 decisions, roughly comparable to the 2024 figure and below 2023's peak. Taken together, the annual series shows uphold rates declining in three consecutive calendar years since the 2023 peak, with volumes also falling year on year across the same period. The 15.6 percentage point drop identified in the latest 90-day window therefore looks like an acceleration of a multi-year trend rather than a new development.
What the firm mix shows
Veste's top-firm table for pensions, which counts firms by the business name recorded on each decision (so subsidiaries of the same banking or insurance group are not combined), shows wide variation in uphold rates among firms that meet the minimum sample size.
At one end, Options UK Personal Pensions LLP recorded 468 decisions with an uphold rate of 99.7%, driven by 466 upheld outcomes against just one not upheld and one partially upheld. A rate this close to unanimous is unusual enough to be worth naming, but Veste's data does not include the underlying issue types for this firm's decisions in the supplied evidence, so no inference can be drawn about what specifically drove that pattern beyond the numbers themselves.
At the other end, Standard Life Assurance Limited recorded the lowest uphold rate among the top firms at 15.9%, from 273 decisions (34 upheld, 19 partially upheld, 220 not upheld). The Prudential Assurance Company Limited recorded 847 decisions with an uphold rate of 21.8%, and Scottish Widows Limited recorded 564 decisions with an uphold rate of 22.3%. Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited, the largest firm by volume in this dataset with 1,043 decisions, recorded an uphold rate of 32.5%, close to the latest 90-day window's overall figure of 31.6%. ReAssure Limited, with 515 decisions, recorded a somewhat higher uphold rate of 38.8%.
These figures describe published Ombudsman decisions only, not the full range of complaints made to each firm, and they should not be read as a ranking of firm conduct. A lower uphold rate among published decisions means the Ombudsman more often agreed with the firm's original decision in the cases that reached a published outcome; it does not measure complaint volume relative to customer numbers, nor service quality more broadly.
What appears to be driving the fall, and what remains uncertain
Veste's data can show that the uphold rate fell and that volume rose at the same time, but it cannot establish why. Two observations are worth separating clearly. First, the fall coincides with a multi-year decline in the annual uphold rate, from 60.9% in 2023 down through 2024 and 2025 to 38.3% so far in 2026, so the latest 90-day figure is consistent with, rather than a departure from, that longer trajectory. Second, the rise in volume (36 more decisions, a 14.5% increase) happened at the same time as the rate fell, but a change in caseload composition, such as more decisions from firms or issue types that typically see lower uphold rates, is one plausible explanation among others that the supplied data does not allow Veste to confirm or rule out.
Among related complaint categories, pension transfer advice complaints carry a notably higher uphold rate of 54.0% across 7,497 decisions, and investment mis-selling complaints sit at 50.2% across 2,874 decisions. Account administration errors, by contrast, show a lower uphold rate of 37.6% across 1,519 decisions, closer to the current pension window's figure. If the mix of published pension decisions has shifted toward administrative or service-type complaints and away from transfer advice or mis-selling issues, that would be consistent with a lower blended uphold rate, though Veste's evidence does not break down the latest 90-day window by issue type to confirm this directly.
Individual decisions as illustration
Four decisions published on 15 June 2026 illustrate the range of outcomes within the pension category, though none should be read as representative of a trend on their own.
In one case, a complainant whose partner had died complained that ReAssure Limited took around eight months to process death benefits and that the process involved administrative errors and delays. The Ombudsman did not uphold the complaint, finding that ReAssure's offer of £400 compensation plus £29.58 interest was fair and reasonable given the acknowledged service failings, and required ReAssure to ensure the full amount was paid.
In a separate case, a complainant argued that Mattioli Woods Limited, as SIPP trustee, failed to pass on notice of a trading embargo during a pension transfer, leading to a rejected withdrawal and claimed losses of around £20,000. The Ombudsman did not uphold the complaint, finding that Mattioli Woods never received the relevant notification because it had been sent to a decommissioned email address, and that the same information had reached the complainant's independent financial adviser, breaking the chain of causation.
A third case saw the Ombudsman uphold a complaint against ReAssure Limited concerning an annuity, after the firm repeatedly failed to clearly explain that it did not hold original policy documents from the annuity's original provider, Barclays Life, causing two months of unnecessary contact. £100 compensation was ordered.
A fourth case against Scottish Equitable plc (Aegon) was partially upheld. The complainant alleged years of inconsistent information about policy terms and pension access options. The Ombudsman found genuine administrative shortcomings but concluded the complainant's delay in accessing his pension was driven by an £800 early surrender charge rather than confusion, and awarded £850 compensation along with directions covering adviser fees and future service.
These four cases show the Ombudsman weighing causation, evidence of what information firms actually held or sent, and the size of compensation against FOS distress and inconvenience bands. They cannot, on their own, explain a market-wide shift in uphold rates.
What the data does not tell us
Veste's dataset captures published Ombudsman decisions, not the full population of complaints made to firms, many of which are resolved before reaching a published decision. The data cannot show why the Ombudsman's caseload mix may have changed, whether firms have altered their own complaint-handling practices, or whether particular issue types have grown or shrunk within the pension category during the latest window. The June 2026 monthly figure of 39 decisions is close to Veste's minimum sample threshold and should be treated as provisional pending further decisions.
The most useful takeaway
The 15.6 percentage point fall in the pension uphold rate is real, is drawn from samples that meet Veste's minimum size threshold, and sits within a longer downward trend visible across three years of annual data and roughly the second half of the 25-month monthly series. It is not a single-month anomaly. For firms and advisers tracking Ombudsman trends, the more useful signal is the sustained multi-year direction rather than any single 90-day snapshot, and firm-level figures should be read as descriptions of published decisions rather than verdicts on overall service standards.