Compliments
If our staff or services have been helpful, please let us know.
Complaints
If you would like to challenge a decision about your pension membership and benefits, please use the internal disputes procedure below.
For other Pension Fund complaints, such as delays in responding to your enquiries, please use the following two stage procedure:
Stage 1
If your complaint was not resolved by the Pensions Team, you can ask the County Council to arrange a review for the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive will send a final response on behalf of the County Council.
Stage 2
If you are still unhappy after this, you can ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to investigate how your complaint has been dealt with.
At each stage, we will acknowledge your complaint within three working days and respond within a maximum of 20 working days, although we aim to respond within 10 working days wherever possible.
Internal disputes
From the day you start work to the day benefits are paid, decisions are made about your pension membership and benefits.
Your employer will be responsible for decisions, such as the contribution rate you pay and your entitlement to benefits. West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service Authority, as scheme manager, processes this information and calculates and pays your benefits.
If you are not satisfied with a decision that affects your membership of the scheme, you have the right to ask for it to be looked at again. This is done by a formal complaints procedure, known as the Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure (IDRP).
You can find out more about the IDRP by reading the guide below. If you would like to raise your complaint under the IDRP, complete the IDRP application form.