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Scottish Widows: Pension reviews

Name: Pension
Rating: 1.25 (64 reviews)

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1.16

Based on 64 reviews, last reviewed 19th Aug 2025

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

100% 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

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 investm... Read more Reviewed on: 19th 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 (64)

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

Minus stars given....DO NOT use Scottish Widows

Minus stars given....DO NOT use Scottish Widows, if you want easy access to your own money as stated in previous reviews or in my case if you need to pay for a loved ones funeral. My mum paid into a pot to pay for her funeral in the innocent belief it would help her family out when she departed this life but we have now been ruthlessly placed into debt during the cost of living crisis by Scottish Widows, who will not release my mums money to pay for her funeral as stated in her last will and testament! This is blatantly going against a legal document, please do not use Scottish Widows at all, for anything unless you don't want easy access to your own hard earned money or to simply stay out of debt for trying to follow a loved ones last wishes. Now we are in debt until we manage to save up for probate...which then takes months to get. From this experience with this shoddy company, I will certainly never use them. I'd be better off if my mum had kept her money under her mattress, at least then I wouldn't be in debt, with no end in sight for months. This company needs investigating and placed under the same level of scrutiny as it's mislead customers are. I am mourning the loss of my mum and this all adds to the anxiety. I wonder if they would like to go through the awful experience of dealing with a company who refuse to part with other peoples money at a time when you need all the help you can get. Reviewed on: 21st July 2023

Stay away from this company.

I have moved back to Spain from the UK. Since November 2022 I have been trying to cash in both my pension plans. It has been a string of calls (since calling from Spain the calls turned out to be very expensive), emails, translations of documents (again, expensive) and on some occasions a long wait before getting a reply. I have received a form yesterday to fill in, which will finally allow me to cash in my pension plans. However, when I got to the section where you fill in your phone number, it won´t accept it, as it is a Spanish and not a UK mobile number. System is set up to serve only individuals who are resident in the UK. The form expires in 30 days. Today, I had to sent again an email chasing this matter. I am hoping that they respond before the deadline. I do not recommend this company at all!!! Reviewed on: 12th July 2023

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