I am shocked , really shocked , to read that it is now taking longer to make a pension transfer than it did three years ago.

Transfer times have increased by 17 per cent over the last three years, from an average of 10.7 days in 2020 to 12.5 days in 2023, according to a PensionBee analysis of Origo’s most recent Pension Transfer Index.

This from Corporate Adviser

According to Origo, most pension companies have seen a rise in transfer processing times during the previous three years, with an average of 14 days in 2022 before a minor decline in the previous year.

Pension transfers from 2020 to 2023 took an average of 25 days or longer at LV=, over 50 per cent longer at The People’s Partnership, and Vanguard’s longest period, 23 days, came in 2023 after the company entered the index in 2021.

How can this be. We live in an age of open banking where we can make fast payments as a matter of course. Progressive firms like Pension Bee , Fidelity and Hargreaves Lansdown now use Swift messaging to expedite transfers but it looks like many others prefer systems that frustrate and vex customers with inexplicable delays.

I am not talking here about the iniquitous practices of “flag throwing” which seems to be written into the KPIs of many administrators as cruelly as the targets given to traffic wardens to issue parking tickets.

I am focussing on the upper hand given to those who want to hang on to money rather than let it pass around the system as it should. There may be a marginal improvement in revenues from doing this , but it is certainly not the way to treat customers fairly and it is against the spirit of the Consumer Duty.

While scamming is certainly a problem, the legitimate request to transfer money from one regulated entity within the UK to another should not be presented to customers as a threat. We are making the exception the rule and starting from an assumption of guilt – especially when transfers are outside a small coterie – typically the founders of Origo.

The proper business of the consumer

By the time we get to the later stages of our careers (let’s call it 50), for most of us, the organisation of our pensions becomes a necessity. We fret that there is no pensions dashboard but set about finding our pensions and by and large can do so using our best endeavours and the help of the DWP and ABI pension finding services. If we can’t do it ourselves, we may employ the help of a consolidator or even employ an IFA to not just find but advise on the destination of our pots.

Put aside the abject failure of the Pensions Dashboard to offer the consumers anything so far, we do have the services of the internet and we no longer have to rely on the post to get things done. The proper business of the consumer- to get pots in one place – is getting easier.

Those who scoff at Pension Bee miss the point, their 10 day transfer promise is crucial to their success, some may call deciding on a provider which makes it easy to combine pensions a poor measure of choice, but that ignores people’s priorities. People prioritise getting “pensions sorted” and prefer a Pension Bee to rivals who make it hard.

We can witter on as much as we like about VFM and turning pots to pensions, but if people can’t do simple things like combining pension pots , pots they were told were “portable”, then they will complain and continue to regard the pension system as set against them.

I agree with Becky O’Connor of Pension Bee when she says

“Consumers deserve an efficient pension transfer process and the ability to voice grievances to the Ombudsman, ensuring they have the same switching rights as observed in other markets.”