What does the Pensions Regulator do? How UK pensions are regulated

Yes. The Pensions Regulator oversees workplace pension schemes and the FCA regulates personal pensions; other bodies cover insurers, tax and complaints.

That is the short answer to whether UK pension schemes are regulated: they are, but no single body covers them all. Which regulator applies depends on how your pension was set up, and a few other organisations handle tax, complaints and compensation. Unsure which of your own pots are trust-based and which contract-based? Telling them apart is a phone job for an FCA-authorised adviser: request one, free, with the form on this page.

Who deals with what

The sections after the table give each body's job in detail. The FCA and TPR rows come from the two regulators' joint strategy of October 2018; TPR's current page still names the FCA as the regulator of personal pension schemes.

The Pensions Regulator: workplace schemes and employers

The Pensions Regulator describes itself as “the public body that protects workplace pensions in the UK”. It is responsible for making sure employers put staff into a pension scheme and pay money into it, which is automatic enrolment, and for improving how workplace schemes are run. Our workplace pension rules guide explains the enrolment duties themselves, and what to do if contributions go missing covers a reader whose employer has fallen behind.

A joint FCA and TPR strategy published in October 2018 set the split out this way: TPR regulates employers’ automatic enrolment duties and the areas where people reach occupational pensions through their employers, covering “trust-based as well as statute-based public service” schemes. It adds that the Department for Work and Pensions sets the rules in TPR’s area while TPR supplements them with codes of practice and guidance, and lists master trust authorisation among TPR’s responsibilities.

TPR is not where individual complaints go. Its own page says it is not responsible for dealing with complaints from scheme members about their pension benefits, nor for finding lost pensions. GOV.UK says to contact TPR if you have concerns about the way your employer is dealing with automatic enrolment.

The FCA: personal pensions, advisers and the register

The joint strategy gives the FCA “personal (contract-based) pensions, either directly or in the workplace”, with SIPPs, advisers and advice in its list, plus significant responsibilities for firms providing supporting services such as advice and asset management. A workplace pension can therefore sit under either regulator: a personal pension arranged through an employer is contract-based, while a trust-run scheme is TPR’s. If you are not sure which you have, the scheme or your employer can say. See what a SIPP is for that product.

Authorisation is the FCA’s other lever. According to the regulator, “nearly all financial service activities must be authorised or registered” with it, and its Financial Services Register is where you look a firm up; the Register names unauthorised firms and scams it has been warned about too. Its pension scams page tells anyone looking for an adviser to check that the adviser is FCA-authorised. Finding a regulated adviser goes through the search itself; for scams generally, see our pension scams guide.

The Register confirms that a firm is authorised; it cannot tell you how your own pensions fit together. That is a conversation for an FCA-authorised adviser, who rings back when your details from the form on this page reach them, with nothing to pay for the call.

Insurers and tax: the PRA and HMRC

An annuity or an insured personal pension is paid by an insurance company, and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority is responsible for the prudential regulation of insurers. It says its supervision judges whether firms are run in a safe and sound manner and whether insurers are protecting policyholders appropriately. What follows if an insurer fails is in our annuity provider guide.

HMRC’s role is tax. Its guidance says a pension scheme must be registered with HMRC to benefit from the tax reliefs available to pensions, and that until registration is confirmed, contributions received will not qualify for tax relief. Only the scheme administrator can apply. The schemes that can apply include occupational schemes set up by an employer and personal or stakeholder schemes set up with permission under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Tax relief itself is covered in the pension tax relief guide.

Complaints and compensation: separate routes

Two ombudsmen take pension complaints, and each says where some complaints belong. The Pensions Ombudsman was set up by law to look at complaints or disputes about pension schemes, including how a scheme is run, where the parties cannot settle them. It is free to use, it is not a regulator, and its determinations are final and binding, enforceable in court. It says that complaints about mis-selling, or about financial advisers, go to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and State Pension complaints go to DWP.

The Financial Ombudsman Service takes problems with a workplace pension, a personal pension or an annuity where the firm involved is FCA-regulated, and points complaints about firms missing from the FCA Register to the Pensions Ombudsman. Both expect you to complain to the scheme or firm first. In most cases the Pensions Ombudsman allows three years from the event or, if later, from when you became aware of the problem or should reasonably have become aware of it.

Compensation comes from different places again. The Pension Protection Fund covers members of defined benefit schemes, paying compensation if a scheme cannot pay the pension it promised and the scheme is eligible; it says it does not protect defined contribution or public sector schemes. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme can generally protect pensions provided by UK-regulated insurers, but says it cannot protect occupational pension schemes if they fail. GOV.UK also names the Fraud Compensation Fund, which may help where a company pension fund is short because of fraud or theft. The limits and conditions are in the Pension Protection Fund guide and can I lose my pension?

Questions about pension regulation

Is the Pensions Regulator the same as the Pensions Ombudsman?

No. The Pensions Regulator oversees schemes and employers, while the Pensions Ombudsman decides individual disputes and says plainly that it is not a regulator. A complaint about your benefits goes to the scheme first and then to one of the ombudsmen, not to the Regulator.

Does the FCA regulate my workplace pension?

It can, if your workplace pension is a contract-based personal pension rather than a trust-based scheme. Your scheme documents, provider or employer can tell you which kind you hold.

How do I check a pension provider or adviser is authorised?

Search for the firm on the FCA’s Financial Services Register; the adviser-finding guide walks through what to look at there. If a firm approached you unprompted, read the scams guide before replying, and to report one see how to report a pension scam.

Your next step

Regulation is split by type of pension, so the first job is working out which kind you hold. Free guidance on taking a defined contribution pension is available from Pension Wise. Would you rather talk it through? Your answers on the form on this page reach one FCA-authorised adviser firm, which rings you back free of charge.

Sources, read 20 October 2026: The Pensions Regulator, What we do and who we are, and About us; FCA and TPR, Regulating the pensions and retirement income sector: our joint regulatory strategy (October 2018); FCA, Financial Services Register, and Pension scams (last updated 19 January 2026); Bank of England, Supervision; HMRC, Apply to register a pension scheme (GOV.UK); The Pensions Ombudsman, About us and What we can and cannot do; Financial Ombudsman Service, Pensions and annuities; Pension Protection Fund, Who we protect and What we do; FSCS, Pension protection; GOV.UK, Workplace pensions.