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Scottish Widows: Pension reviews

Name: Pension
Rating: 1.24 (66 reviews)

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1.15

Based on 66 reviews, last reviewed 31st Aug 2025

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

400% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

4 star

3 star

2 star

94%

Latest highest rating:

5

Great customer and digital services Switched all my pensions to my workplace pension with Scottish Widows. Such a smooth process, I was kept well informed throughout. Their app is great,... Read more Reviewed on: 12th January 2022

Latest lowest rating:

1

58% loss in Scottish Widow's P.ension I have lost 58% of the value of my Scottish Widows Pension in the last 5 years, and in writing Scottish Widows have advised they see no issue with the... Read more Reviewed on: 31st August 2025

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About this product

Scottish Widows pension reviews written by Smart Money People like you. For many of us, our pension is an important part of our financial future. Finding a pension provider that you can trust and rely on is a must for many people. Take a look at our Scottish Widows pension reviews to find out what life at Scottish Widows is really like. If you hold this pension, we'd love you to write an honest review here too!

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Scottish Widows Pension reviews (66)

58% loss in Scottish Widow's P.ension

I have lost 58% of the value of my Scottish Widows Pension in the last 5 years, and in writing Scottish Widows have advised they see no issue with their underperformance. They also have no paperwork regarding the initial transfer of my Pension by a former employer so have no proof of my choice of investment option, which has obviously proved disastrous. Complete lack of responsibility and accountability. Told me to speak to the Financial Ombudsman if I wanted to take further action. They are as useless as Scottish Widows! Reviewed on: 31st August 2025

Scottish Widows - Failure On Many Levels

I have paid into a SW Pension Scheme for 33 years having full faith that my £ was in safe hands. The date for the maturity was April 2025 but when I received the annual summary pension statement the previous year it became parent that SW had ceased to collect my direct debit premiums and there were many inaccuracies in the summary document. Compensated £600 for admin errors. Having set up the DD again, they have once more cancelled my DD. They now have not replied to subsequent telephone calls, Emails, fail to provide information how my pension figure has been calculated, nor what that figure should be. I do not want to work for ever!!! Tell me how you have calculated my pension pot figure…because I have lost all faith in this organization. I am a long standing customer - and this is the way I am being treated. I advise anyone thinking about taking out a private pension, to choose a company different from SW. I am very unhappy with the current service/attitude Reviewed on: 30th August 2025

Are Scottish Widows a bunch of crooks.

Are Scottish Widows a bunch of crooks. Due to overseas travel I missed my 75 birthday nomination of how to select how to move forward with my investment. I received a letter from the stating my investment would be put into an annuity. There was no terms and condition of the annuity and as I was 75 YO with COPD and a very short life expectancy with no option to nominate my wife as a beneficiary this appeared to me as a way for them to benefit of my death. My pension investment as of 14 September 2024 stood at GBP169,080.80. I spoke by phone early October 2024 and advised I did not want an annuity and would like to full value reinvested. They agreed as there was a 30 day cooling off period type annuity would be cancelled. After near a year of emails, phone calls, etc, I finally received an email agreeing that the annuity would be cancelled and I could select how to move forward, annuity, full withdrawal with 25% tax free or 25% tax free and reinvest with future drawdown. I had a long conversation with one of the Retirement Hub team to discuss all the options 31 July 2025. After the call I received a very detailed email for Andrew Ralton which I had to sign electronially The email was very detailed and explained all the options available but any decision made was binding and irreversible. It was made clear I should take advice before making a final decision and links were included to HMRC, PensionWise and other bodies.During the call Andrew was kind enough to detail I would be entitled to GBP42, 270 but also other withdraws would be subject to full taxation. After a 3 week period to review and make a decision I made a further call today, 18 August 2025 spoke to a gentleman named Percy and was told my options were 1 - Annuity 2 - Full Pension Encashment ( with UK HMRC tax penalties) I am Spanish tax resident. 3 - Transferring to a different provider. I would not be entitled to 25% tax free allowance. I am totally at witts end with Scottish Widows, I believe they are in cahoots with HMRC and will do anything to prevent me having a relaxing pension. A warning to all others with a Scottish Widows pension, probably nominated by your employer, get your money out as soon as you reach 50 and invest with a reliable pension provider. If anyone has any idea how to get out of the quagmire I wiould appreciate any help. As any FYI, as the funds were put into an annuity account, no investment has happened since my 75 birthday and the pot is at the same amount, no increase over the past 11 months. Total ineptitude by Scottish Widows. Reviewed on: 19th August 2025

Really poor performance from Sw

I had a pension pot that I wanted to cash in. Customer service promised 10 days. I waited. I then checked into see what was happening but hey computer said no. They blamed HMRC. I checked it was a lie. Then letter n the post. Another lie. I found a Scottish Widows complains of platform on FB that save my sanity . Do not believe the 5 starsreviews on trust Pilot they are misleading. Look at the 1 star first and then make a decision. Reviewed on: 15th August 2025

Everything was a struggle.

Everything was a struggle. Two GDPR breaches. Still pending information on why the plan performance was so dire. Reviewed on: 21st March 2025

Scottish Widows incompetency

I have been in dispute with Scottish Widows since 2020 over the extremely poor performance and management of the company Pension fund in relation to other pensions over a similar period. If you have a Company pension scheme with Scottish Widows, I strongly suggest you ask some questions on the performance, carry out a performance review plus administration charges soon. To Give you an idea, my pension pot bombed by nearly £20k in 2 years. From experience, the pension pot is moved to a safer “lifestyle” policy, these are a “bonds” based investment which have also bombed. Scottish Widows, when you look into the scheme are “Advisors, Administrators ” and Trustees”. (How that works I do not know) all taking a fee from your pension pot one assumes. Scottish Widows will not reveal what these charges are which depletes your pension pot. Be assured your pension needs to perform well, it will not be long before Pensions are means tested. There is a Scottish Widows Complaints Platform set up on Facebook which highlights issues others have had and some guidance. Do not be “fobbed off” by “it’s the markets” Reviewed on: 12th February 2025

No customer service. Ignore ombudsman decisions

I totally agree with Rob and Dave. I first wrote over a year ago to Scottish widows and have yet to have them engage with me and implement the financial ombudsman decision which should have been done by 24/11/23. They simply sit on customer money and profit from it. I can only suggest get your MP to make them accountable. Reviewed on: 28th February 2024

THE WORST COMPANY EVER

THE WORST COMPANY IVE EVER DEALT WITH. Utterly useless. I have spent 10 weeks and 7 phones calls to merely ask where my money is at and no one can give me an answer. No one ever calls me back and the call center staff are unable to connect me to anyone to help. I ask to be escalated to a manager and never anyone available. I’m not asking much and they are uttlerly usless. Still now 11 weeks down the track and I’m no wiser. I send a email and they say it will be between 3 and 10 days to reply. It’s 2023 you people - the world has the internet now - look into it. They should be investigated as something is terribly wrong with that company. Reviewed on: 19th December 2023

Disgraceful

I am trying to opt out after being auto-enrolled and have not had any correspondence hence no policy number. The phone line won't put you through without a ploicy number so i spent hours making them up in order to get through. The rep i spoke to said he would trnafer me to the right team and i spent nearly an hour with him coming back to me whilst on hold to tell me we were still on hold, once we got through he could hear the other team but i couldn't, then sounding frustrated with it, he hung up!!!!!! Now I'm back to square one, you're taking my money but won't speak to me as I don't have a policy number as you haven't sent any documents. ABSOLUTE TOTAL DISGRACE - I guess you'l be taking my money now for the rest of my career and I'll never be able to speak to you about it and just accept it's gone forever!!! Reviewed on: 30th October 2023

If one could give negative stars one would

Utterly terrible performing funds we have been burdened with by our company. Totally and utterly inept. Reviewed on: 8th October 2023

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