Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited · DRN-6236178

The complaint Mr I has complained that Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited delayed the setting up of his annuity. Mr I claims that he’s suffered a financial loss as a result. What happened Mr I held a pension plan with Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited (Aviva). The pension plan had a guaranteed annuity rate. The planned retirement date under Mr I’s Aviva pension plan was in March 2025. On 19 September 2024 Aviva sent Mr I a retirement option pack for his pension plan. This pack told Mr I that his planned retirement date was approaching and therefore Aviva needed to know what he wanted to do with his pension. The retirement option pack also set out further information to help Mr I decide what he wanted to do with his pension. Aviva wrote to Mr I again on 20 January 2025 to remind him that it still needed to speak with him about his retirement options. This letter also gave Mr I information on the guaranteed annuity rate applying to his pension plan. Mr I telephoned Aviva’s retirement team on 20 February 2025. During this call Mr I told Aviva that he wanted to use his pension plan to set up an annuity. Aviva then posted Mr I a retirement pack on 24 February 2025. Contained within this retirement pack was an annuity payment form for Mr I to complete and return to Aviva so that it could then set up his annuity. However, Mr I has said that he didn’t receive this pack. Aviva wrote to Mr I again on 15 April 2025 to say that it had extended the retirement date of his pension plan to his age 75. Aviva told Mr I that it had done this because he hadn’t returned his completed annuity payment form. Mr I telephoned Aviva on 29 April 2025 to ask why he’d received this letter and was told that all was in order with his pension plan and that a retirement quote and forms would be sent to him. However, as Mr I didn’t receive any forms he telephoned Aviva again on 21 May 2025 to chase his retirement pack and paperwork. Aviva sent the retirement pack and paperwork to Mr I on 22 May 2025. Aviva received Mr I’s completed annuity payment form on 13 June 2025. Aviva then wrote to Mr I on 18 June 2025 to confirm that his annuity had started on 16 June 2025. Mr I complained to Aviva as he thought that the start date of his annuity should be the planned retirement date for his pension plan, which was in March 2025, and not 16 June 2025. Mr I also said that he’d been told by Aviva during his telephone call of 29 April 2025

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that the start of his annuity would be backdated to March 2025. Mr I claimed that because Aviva had started his annuity in June 2025 he’d lost out on annuity income between March and June 2025. Mr I thought that Aviva should pay this income to him. Aviva responded to Mr I’s complaint on 13 August 2025. In its response Aviva said that it wouldn’t be able to backdate the start of Mr I’s annuity to March 2025. However, Aviva said that during Mr I’s 29 April 2025 telephone call its representative had been unclear about whether Aviva could backdate Mr I’s annuity start date. To apologise for this Aviva paid Mr I £50. Mr I wasn’t happy with Aviva’s response, so he brought his complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. One of our Investigator’s reviewed Mr I’s complaint. Their view was that Mr I had asked Aviva to send him a retirement pack and annuity payment form when he telephoned it on 29 April 2025. However, Aviva hadn’t sent Mr I his retirement pack until 22 May 2025. Our Investigator thought that because of this, Aviva had delayed the start of Mr I’s annuity and should therefore backdate the start of his annuity. Our Investigator’s view was that if it hadn’t been for Aviva’s error Mr I’s annuity would’ve started on 27 May 2025 and therefore Aviva should pay Mr I his missed annuity income together with interest calculated at 8% simple. Our Investigator also thought that Aviva should also pay Mr I £300 compensation for the distress and inconvenience its error had caused, so an additional £250 on top of the £50 compensation that Aviva had already paid him. Mr I didn’t agree with our Investigator’s view. He maintained that the start of his annuity should be backdated to March 2025. He therefore asked for his complaint to be considered by an Ombudsman. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. Aviva has told this Service that when Mr I telephoned Aviva on 29 April 2025 he told its representative that he was still waiting for forms to start his annuity and therefore it should have sent him a retirement pack and annuity payment form following this call. However, as I’ve said above, Mr I doesn’t agree with our Investigator’s view that the start of his annuity should be backdated to May 2025. Instead, Mr I maintains that the start date of his annuity should be in March 2025. In his response to our Investigator’s view Mr I sent this Service a copy of a letter he received from Aviva in September 2024.This letter told Mr I what the value of his pension plan was on 18 September 2024. It also said: “You told us you want to start taking money from this plan on 16 March 2025. You may be able to change this retirement date.” Mr I has claimed that this letter said that the start date of his annuity was 16 March 2025 and that he could change this date if he wanted. But as he didn’t change the start date Mr I says that Aviva should pay him his annuity income from 16 March 2025. But I don’t think this can be right. I think that whilst this letter is saying that Mr I’s planned retirement date was 16 March 2025, I also think that Mr I would’ve needed to complete and return his annuity payment form to Aviva before his planned retirement date if he wanted his annuity to start in March 2025. Mr I didn’t return his completed annuity payment form to Aviva until June 2025.

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Aviva wrote to Mr I on 19 September 2024 to say: “Your planned retirement date will soon be here, so we need to know what you want to do with your money. We’ve enclosed some information to help you to make your decision”. I think that in this letter Aviva was giving Mr I six months’ notice that his planned retirement age was approaching and that he needed to contact Aviva to tell it what he wanted to do with his pension. However, because Mr I didn’t contact Aviva when he received this letter, so Aviva wrote to him again on 20 January 2025 to say that he still needed to tell it what he wanted to do with his pension plan. It then wasn’t until 20 February 2025 that Mr I contacted Aviva. Mr I then had just under a month before he reached his pension’s planned retirement date. I think that this meant that Mr I had much less time available to start his annuity on his planned retirement date than if he’d contacted Aviva when he received the 19 September 2024 letter. Following Mr I’s telephone call with Aviva on 20 February 2025, Aviva sent him his retirement pack, which included the annuity payment form that Mr I needed to complete and return to Aviva for his annuity to start. Aviva posted this paperwork to Mr I. However, Mr I says that he never received this paperwork in the post. I’ve seen a copy of the retirement pack that Aviva sent to Mr I. This pack was correctly addressed to Mr I’s home. As it was correctly addressed, I don’t think it would be fair or reasonable to hold Aviva responsible for Mr I not receiving this correspondence. Mr I then telephoned Aviva on 29 April 2025. This was over a month after his planned retirement date when Mr I was expecting his annuity to start. Mr I’s telephone call was prompted by Aviva’s letter of 15 April 2025 which told him that the planned retirement date for his annuity had been extended. Mr I has claimed that when he spoke with Aviva on 29 April 2025 he was told that the start date of his annuity would be backdated to his planned retirement date. Aviva has sent this Service a recording of this telephone call and I’ve therefore listened very carefully to this recording. During this telephone call, Mr I asks the Aviva representative he speaks with if his annuity payments will be backdated to March 2025. Mr I also says that he doesn’t mind if payments are backdated, as long as he gets his annuity payments from March 2025. In response the Aviva representative says: “absolutely, yeah, so that will be. What I will do is I will just park something through just to sort of get that chased really but if it is backdated then there will be backdated payments for you”. Mr I then doesn’t ask the Aviva representative any further questions on this point and the call finishes soon afterwards. I think that the Aviva representative was initially telling Mr I that his annuity payments will be backdated. But Mr I is then told by the representative that they will chase to see if the payments will be backdated. Therefore, whilst I don’t think that Mr I was told that his annuity payments would be backdated, I also don’t think that Mr I was told that his annuity payments would not be backdated. Instead, I think he’s told that the representative will chase to see if his annuity payments will be backdated. But having listened to the recording of this telephone call I also think that it’s reasonable to conclude that the response given by the Aviva representative to Mr I’s question was confusing. However, I think that Mr I did tell the Aviva representative during this telephone call that he was still waiting for his annuity payment application form. I therefore think it would’ve been reasonable for Aviva to have sent Mr I his retirement pack following this call, including his annuity payment form, but Aviva didn’t do this.

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Mr I called Aviva again on 21 May 2025 to chase up his retirement pack. I think this meant that Mr I waited four weeks before he chased Aviva again for his retirement pack and his annuity payment form. It was only after this further chase up call that Aviva sent Mr I his retirement pack and application form. This was sent to Mr I on 22 May 2025, so the day after his telephone call. Mr I returned his completed annuity application form on 13 June 2025 which was 22 days after Aviva had sent him his retirement and application pack following his 21 May 2025 telephone call. I’ve therefore considered whether Mr I was told anything during his 21 May 2025 telephone call that may have resulted in him delaying sending his completed annuity payment form back to Aviva. Aviva has also sent this Service a recording of this telephone call and again I’ve listened very carefully to this recording. During this telephone call Mr I tells the Aviva representative he spoke with that he’s still waiting for his annuity paperwork. Mr I also says that he should’ve been drawing his annuity in March 2025 and that his income payments should be backdated to then with interest. The Aviva representative says that they’ll need to look into this for him. Mr I is however told that the representative will get Mr I’s retirement pack re-issued for him and that he will need to fill out and return his annuity payment form before Aviva’s administration team can then set up his annuity. Towards the end of the telephone call Mr I is again told that once he’s received his retirement pack, he needs to send his completed forms back to Aviva. Mr I also asks about the letter that Aviva sent him on 15 April 2025 which said that it had extended the retirement date of his pension plan to his age 75. Mr I is told that he is still able to take his pension at his “current age”. I therefore don’t think that Mr I was told during this telephone call with Aviva that his annuity would be backdated to March 2025, but as I’ve said above, I think he was told that Aviva would look into his claim that he should receive backdated payments. Aviva sent Mr I his retirement pack and paperwork on 22 May 2025 but then didn’t receive Mr I’s completed annuity payment form back until 13 June 2025. However, I think that during the 21 May 2025 telephone call Mr I was told that he had to return his completed annuity payment form before he could receive any funds out of his policy. I therefore don’t think that Aviva was responsible for any delay in Mr I returning his completed annuity payment form, once it had sent Mr I his retirement pack. As I’ve said above, I think that Aviva should’ve sent Mr I his retirement pack and application form following his 29 April 2025 telephone call. Aviva sent Mr I his retirement pack the day after his call of 21 May 2025. I therefore think it’s reasonable to conclude that if Aviva had sent Mr I his retirement pack following his 29 April 2025 telephone call, these would also have been sent the day after that telephone call, so on 30 April 2025. If Aviva had sent Mr I his annuity paperwork on 30 April 2025, instead of 22 May 2025, then Mr I would’ve received the paperwork needed to start his annuity 22 days earlier than he did. I therefore also think it’s reasonable to assume that if Mr I had received his annuity paperwork 22 days earlier, then he would then have returned his completed application form to Aviva earlier than he did. I think that this would then have meant that Mr I’s annuity would have started 22 days earlier than it did.

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The start date of Mr I’s annuity was 16 June 2025, 22 days before this date was 25 May 2025. However, as 25 May 2025 was a Sunday and the following day was a Bank Holiday, I think it’s reasonable to assume that Mr I’s annuity should have started on the next working day, which was Tuesday 27 May 2025, if Aviva had sent Mr I his retirement pack 22 days earlier than it did. I therefore think that Aviva’s error resulted in Mr I’s annuity starting later than it should have. I’m therefore upholding Mr I’s complaint and will now set out how Mr I should be compensated for Aviva’s error. Putting things right As I’ve said above, I think that the start date of Mr I’s annuity should have been 27 May 2025. To put things right for Mr I, Aviva should calculate the amount of annuity income that Mr I has lost between 27 May 2025 and 16 June 2025 and then pay that annuity income to him. Aviva should also pay Mr I interest on his missed annuity income calculated at 8% simple. If Aviva considers that it’s required by HM Revenue & Customs to deduct income tax from that interest, it should tell Mr I how much it’s taken off. It should also give Mr I a tax deduction certificate if he asks for one, so he can reclaim the tax from HM Revenue & Customs if appropriate. I also think that Aviva’s error will have caused Mr I some distress and inconvenience. I say this because Mr I wasn’t sent a retirement pack and application form following his telephone call of 29 April 2025. He had to make a further telephone call to Aviva before he received his retirement pack and his annuity then didn’t start until 16 June 2025. I also think that Mr I was given confusing information during his 29 April 2025 telephone call. I think that Aviva’s error will have caused Mr I more than the levels of frustration and annoyance he might reasonably expect from day-to-day life, and the impact has been more than just minimal. I also think that Aviva’s error required a reasonable effort from Mr I to sort out and would’ve had an impact on him for some weeks. Taking all these factors into account, my conclusion is that Aviva should pay Mr I compensation of £300 for the distress and inconvenience its action caused. Aviva has already paid Mr I £50 compensation so it should now pay Mr I a further £250, so that the total compensation paid is £300. My final decision My final decision is that I uphold Mr I’s complaint and Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited should now compensate Mr I as I’ve set out above. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr I to accept or reject my decision before 16 April 2026. Ian Barton Ombudsman

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