Good news for disgruntled retirement fund members is that Professor John Murphy, the Pension Funds Adjudicator, is likely to get five additional staff members to help him cope with the flood of complaints that his office has received.
So far the Financial Services Board has given Murphy the go ahead to appoint two investigators and a secretary but he is hoping to be allowed to appoint two more staff members in the near future.
With the help of only one secretary, Murphy has been trying to cope with the more than 1 200 complaints he has received since the beginning of this year.
He says even with the extra help his office will struggle to make a dent in the backlog of complaints, which now totals 900 cases. Ideally he requires a staff of 10 to 15.
"We have to find some radical means with dealing with the backlog otherwise it will be there forever," he says.
As part of the solution, Murphy has urged retirement funds to play a more proactive role in solving complaints from their members.
Before you can take a complaint to Murphy, you have to put the complaint to your fund in writing and they have 30 days in which to respond in writing.Should the fund fail to reply to you in 30 days you can go directly to Murphy.
Murphy has found that most funds respond to complaints by simply reiterating their position. The consequence of this is that many disputes are being referred to him which could have been solved.
"A more purposeful approach suggests that a fund and its trustees should engage in an internal process of dispute resolution."
This means more than a written response to a complaint, Murphy says. At the very least, the fund should convene a meeting with you to discuss the issue.
