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Scottish Widows: Pension reviews

Name: Pension
Rating: 1.26 (61 reviews)

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1.17

Based on 61 reviews, last reviewed 12th Feb 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

93%

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

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 o... Read more Reviewed on: 12th February 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!

Scottish Widows Pension reviews (61)

Review of the Scottish Widows, Pension:

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

Utter joke

No concept of allowing investors to mitigate risks in business cycle and ALL about funnelling funds into their poor asset managers without any choice. Shameful. Reviewed on: 28th December 2022

dreadful performance, appalling investment returns, no communications

I retired at seventy and had an employers pension of £39000 that was held in a pension preservation pot , It grew to £47000 but has now collapsed to less than £33000 in just under five years. I can never touch this now , will have to leave it to my kids ! may be over twenty years it might grow, or pigs might fly! their communication skills are zero , ignore letters , the telephone is a circular tour that just goes nowhere, do not touch this company with a bargepole. Reviewed on: 23rd December 2022

Unbelievably incompetent

I have just receive my annual Retirement Account Statement and discovered that my pension fund has fallen in value by over 33% in just 12 months. We all know that the market is "volatile" but for a "Pension Protector"fund to drop by a third in less than a year requires more than market volatility. I retire in less than 12 months and have been putting as much into my pension as I can afford every month - it's just disappeared. Reviewed on: 20th December 2022

Pension Protector fund - what a scandalous misnomer!

My Pension Fund certainly wasn't "protected" by Scottish Widows. Being able to see the value of my pension every time I logged into my LIoyds Bank account, I watched the value of the fund fall over the past two years and then take a nosedive through this summer. When I cashed-in the fund in late September this year, the value had been eroded by around 30 per cent. The poor performance of my fund was matched by the service I received from Scottish Widows staff. Several telephone hours were spent being passed from person to person and holding on their telephone service. This caused many days delay to activating the termination of my fund, whilst its value was continuing to fall. Further incompetence and lack of professionalism was displayed in errors to my final confirmation letter from Scottish Widows. This appalling custodianship of peoples' pensions is scandalous. Reviewed on: 19th December 2022

A joke of a company

I moved jobs in Sept 22. My employer has a pension with SW. I filled in forms my employer sent and these were sent over to SW - 3 times now as of yesterday! My employer has made 2 monthly contributions on my behalf so far (Oct and Nov). However, SW have no policy number for me having emailed, filled in forms and spoken to them on the telephone countless times since i started my new job, its now 07 Dec 2022. I was given a different email address today to contact: lpc.aftersalesATscottishwidows.co.uk I was unable to deliver your message to the following addresses: lpc.aftersalesATscottishwidows.co.uk Reason: 550 #5.1.0 Address rejected. All I want is the number so I can transfer my previous employment's pension in. If I had a choice I wouldn't have a pension with this company - if you do have a choice AVOID Reviewed on: 7th December 2022

Jokers

On the phone for over an hour...passed to three people. Then still nothing was sorted out .I'm very angry. They are absolutely useless Reviewed on: 24th November 2022

Disgraceful performance

My Scottish Widows pension fund - in what they term 'Retirement Account' has tumbled in value over the last 12 months, losing £20,000 of it's original £150,000. The losses didn't happen at a specific moment in time but gradually over the entire 12 months. I'm no finance genius, but why didn't the fund managers remove the money from whatever they were invested in and put it under a mattress? My other pension with Lansdown Hargreaves has grown over the period - so justify that SW? Reviewed on: 18th November 2022

Terrible company

My ex employer moved my workplace pension over to Scottish widows. The Communisis Trustees took it upon themselves to change my fund choices without my consent. In 16 months my pension pot has fallen by £10,000. Scottish Widows refuse to do anything about it, they are really not bothered but are quite happy to take their % from me all the same. Do they actually have fund managers that know what they are doing. Stay well clear if you don’t want to lose your money. Reviewed on: 14th November 2022

Awful Customer Service

The website seldom works properly so you need to phone them. And when you phone them it is as if no one works there. I have been chasing a transfer in for 9 weeks now and nobody knows anything and the shorted time I have been on hold is 40 minutes. It is regularly over 1 hour on hold just to speak to someone. Avoid at all costs, I am trying to move away from them to a different provider. Reviewed on: 26th October 2022

Not sure if anyone acually works there?

1 hour 20 mins on the main customer service line andand addsional 30 minutes on the complaints number and no answer? This is a auful customer service for a financial comany. Reviewed on: 18th October 2022

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