The FSPO cannot investigate a complaint about a pension provider which relates to which of the following?

• A. A dispute of fact or law.
• B. A former member of a pension arrangement.
• C. Compliance of trustees with the Pensions Act.
• D. Maladministration.

Answer: (C)

The FSPO’s role is to resolve complaints about how a pension provider or trustees handled service delivery, focusing on issues of maladministration and disputes about what happened in practice. It can examine disputes of fact or law related to a complaint and it can hear from current or former members about how the provider dealt with them. What sits outside its remit is questions about whether trustees are complying with pension legislation—the Pensions Act. That kind of regulatory compliance is handled by the pensions regulator, not the FSPO. So the correct takeaway is that compliance of trustees with the Pensions Act falls outside the FSPO’s scope, while the other issues are within it.