Pension savers at one of Britain’s largest retirement providers are still grappling with missing contributions and blocked accounts nearly 18 months after a failed computer system upgrade.
Scottish Equitable, which operates under the Aegon brand, attempted to migrate around one million legacy pension customers onto new systems in August 2024, but the transition triggered widespread disruption for a significant portion of savers.
In the aftermath of the migration, some customers found themselves locked out of their online pension accounts, while others discovered that employer contributions had vanished from their records.
Seventeen months on, Aegon has yet to resolve all outstanding cases, and the Financial Ombudsman Service has ruled against the provider in at least five workplace pension disputes in the past six months.
In each ruling, the Ombudsman concluded that Aegon had failed to properly address customer complaints, ordering a combined £2,200 in compensation.
One saver, referred to as Mr A, told the Ombudsman that a £12,000 payment never appeared in his pension following the system change, leaving him with an estimated £1,000 loss in investment growth.
He also reported that four months of regular contributions were not credited to his account.
After months without progress, he escalated his case to the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman orders compensation as problems persist
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Another customer, identified as Mr B, said he had been unable to make any pension contributions for more than a year because he had been locked out of his online account since August 2024.
The Ombudsman noted in November that his case remained unresolved more than 12 months after the upgrade.
A third saver, Mrs B, experienced delays to five months’ worth of contributions, with the Ombudsman again finding that Aegon’s complaint handling fell short of expected standards.
Pensions expert Tom McPhail said disruption of this duration is highly unusual in the industry.
Prolonged delays, he warned, create additional administrative complications
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While system upgrades can be complex and occasionally go wrong, he said the key test is how quickly providers put things right.
Prolonged delays, he warned, create additional administrative complications.
“The longer you leave it, the worse it gets – you end up having to make manual back calculations to work out things that should have happened automatically,” he said.
Mr McPhail added that savers often find the situation distressing, describing the inability to view pension information as “deeply unsettling”, particularly for those nearing retirement.
Labour MP Catherine West, a member of the Treasury Committee, also criticised the delays, saying it was “disappointing” that savers had been forced to escalate their cases to the Ombudsman.
She said the length of time taken to resolve issues was unacceptable.
Aegon has declined to confirm how many customers were affected by the system problems, though the provider serves around two million pension savers in total.
A spokesman said dedicated teams had been set up to support those experiencing difficulties, adding that while most customers saw no disruption or only short‑term issues, a minority had faced longer‑lasting impacts.
The company apologised for the inconvenience
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The company apologised for the inconvenience and said delayed contributions were being held securely and would be applied once processing issues were resolved.
It stressed that no pension savings had been lost as a result of the upgrade.
To manage the backlog, Aegon has recruited additional staff and redeployed existing employees to handle higher call volumes.
The Financial Conduct Authority said firms are required to return customers to the position they would have been in had problems not occurred, including correcting errors and providing compensation where harm has been caused.