\n The concern is that the Pensions Ombudsman is primarily concerned with resolving individual pension complaints and disputes, including the financial consequences for the person affected.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the SPSO is considered to have a wider public-service remit, allowing it to investigate alleged maladministration by Scottish public bodies and consider whether wider failures in their systems, processes or communications have caused injustice or hardship and seek lessons to be learnt.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr McFadden’s decision reveals that the SPSO accepted the complaint concerned alleged \u201cmisleading and false information\u201d from the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) which had resulted in \u201cserious financial detriment \/ hardship\u201d to the teacher and his family.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the regulator concluded that the specialist pensions ombudsman was the more appropriate organisation to examine the case, citing the complexity of the pension arrangements and the significant financial loss claimed.\n<\/p>\n
\n In an original decision, the SPSO told the teacher: \u201cWhile I do not seek to minimise your concerns in any way, or how you\/your family have been impacted, I must tell you that your complaint is not one we will investigate, for now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The teacher who raised the complaint wanted the ombudsman to investigate the wider issues over failed deadlines over delivery of the remedies.\n<\/p>\n
\n He pointed to an earlier SPSO case involving the SPPA in which financial redress had been recommended and arguing that his complaint concerned maladministration through misleading communications rather than the application of pension regulations.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said the SPSO decision amounted to a failure by the Scottish complaints system to properly examine concerns over the pensions remedy.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) – the organisation supposed to be on the side of individuals faced with maladministration in Scottish public services – has refused to investigate the SPPA,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n “One of the biggest public pensions scandals in Scottish history and our own public services ombudsman here refuses even to investigate: effectively washing his hands of it and not wanting it on his desk.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Pensioner rights campaigner Mar\u00adtin Gallagher (Image: Martin Gallagher)\n<\/p>\n
\n The McCloud Remedy followed a court ruling that the UK Government unlawfully discriminated against younger public sector workers<\/a> through pension reforms introduced in 2015. Pension schemes have since had to recalculate benefits so eligible members can choose the pension that leaves them better off for the period between April 2015 and March 2022.\n<\/p>\n \n Under the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022, all eligible members were legally supposed to receive their remedy outlining their choice between legacy and reformed scheme benefits by April, last year. But as deadline after deadline was missed, pensioners have been waiting for payments worth tens of thousands of pounds.\n<\/p>\n \n Read More:\n<\/p>\n \n The SPPA told the Pensions Regulator in October 2025 that it was using a legal discretion to extend the deadline for remedy delivery for police, firefighters and teachers until the end of 2026, while the NHS deadline was extended to the end of July 2028.\n<\/p>\n \n Across the pension schemes administered by the SPPA, around 215,000 members are eligible for a statement setting out their position under the McCloud remedy. By July 3, the agency had issued 119,596 such statements, leaving more than 95,000 members without one at that point.\n<\/p>\n \n Retired police superintendent Martin Gallagher, who coordinates the Job’s Forgotten group campaigning for the pension remedies, said: “The maladministration in respect of the McLeod remedy in Scotland being committed by the SPPA is there for everyone to see. They have missed deadlines time and again, including statutory dates for resolution.\n<\/p>\n \n “If the SPSO has a locus to investigate maladministration by public bodies in Scotland what more glaring example of an appropriate case can there be than that of the conduct of the SPPA?\n<\/p>\n \n “Through their maladministration the SPPA have ruined the retirements of thousands. They must be held to account by someone.”\n<\/p>\n \n The teacher\u2019s complaint centred on communications issued by the SPPA which he said repeatedly indicated that pension members would be contacted by March 31, 2025.\n<\/p>\n \n In his complaint to the SPSO, he said he had made retirement and financial planning decisions based on those assurances.\n<\/p>\n \n \n He argued that SPPA communications between October 2023 and February 2025 had indicated that it was on track to deliver the remedy by the statutory deadline, only for the agency to revise its position shortly before the deadline.\n<\/p>\nSPPA chief Stephen Pathirana is expected to answer to the Scottish Parliament in a future scrutiny session\n<\/p>\n