Mr. Liam Sloyan:

The Senator has touched on another important point that I would like to draw attention to, which is that complaints should not necessarily need to come to us. As he said, he was able to resolve them directly with the provider on occasions himself, without the need for our services. This is better from our perspective, that complaints be resolved without the requirement for our services, when they are either pension providers or financial service providers. They can look to the various information that we put out there regarding experience, resolutions and how they can resolve the complaint directly with the complainant themselves without requiring our services. There are some examples in our overview of situations whereby people brought complaints to our office and sometimes those complaints were closed almost immediately. Our office got in contact. Other times, they proceeded all the way through dispute resolution services and onto a formal investigation before they were resolved. Again, they were resolved without the need for a decision and were resolved ultimately between the complainant and the provider themselves.

When we are asked if we are receiving complaints on issues that came up a few years ago, ideally where something has happened, there is an opportunity for the provider to resolve the complaint before coming to us. It need not necessarily follow that even if issues do arise, they result in complaints coming to our office, and should not be in all cases.