Standard Life UK Reviews 

We have recently moved from A N Other to Standard Life, my previous experiences of pension management has been nothing short of awful! The Standard Life experience is absolutely outstanding! Amazing, easy to use App, fast, comprehensive answers to all my queries and a transfer IN I’ve been trying to fulfil for years, done successfully in days! Superb!

It’s lie after lie with this company. They obviously are corrupt to the core with staff lying all the time. They told me my money was paid on three occasions, which it wasn’t. I’ve been chasing a withdrawal for four weeks and still don’t have my money. FCA is the next step. Stay clear of Phoenix. I can’t begin to tell you how bad this lot are. They lie you all the time. Andy Briggs is the CEO who obviously hasn’t clue about what’s going on. I’ve written to him but don’t expect a reply. The attitude and culture comes from the top.

Very easy to navigate, staff are really helpful

I was told on 15th April that the requested lump sum would be with me in "about a fortnight". Nearly 5 weeks later, I'm still waiting. Told they will respond to my complaint "in due course". Also waiting for the £150 compensation they said they'd sent me for refusing to log my complaint about being held in a queue on the phone. The financial ombudsman gives companies 15 days to consider complaints referring to bank transfers so, with no response from SL, I'll be off to them in the next few days.

Lack of knowledge about their own pension products, failed to call back for prearranged call....... causing undue delays to take MY pension funds.
Currently reviewing for better providers.

This was a quick and efficient service and completed well within the timeframe

Needed to consolidate two pensions and take a lump sum to pay builders, was told it would take 10 days. That was a month ago. Two weeks ago I called and SL admitted to handling the transfer incorrectly and will resubmit it, it will take another 10 days but would be "prioritised."
It still hasn't been done and as far as I can tell only one pension has been transferred and the other is still residing with my old supplier. My credit cards are maxed out and the builder is threatening to down tools.
The only communication I've had since chasing SL a fortnight ago is this link for a review so here it is: I hope you enjoy your single star and its warm glow as it clearly matters more to you than your actual customers.

Super efficient pension consolidation. Step by steps comms along the way.

Very dissappointing, I rang the Standard Life company about confirming cancellation and then next day , they withdraw some money in my account. I was in a big meeting and had the text messages that i was overdrawn. The Standard Life took 12,000pounds without me knowing the cancelllation didnt they do it. Its extremely heartbreaking.

Wanted to withdraw money from my pension plan. It was a very slow process with repeated assurances that it would be resolved within a time frame and then never was.

Draw down money requested 5th April. Money paid via an incorrect method 17th April was rejected by the bank & returned to Standard Life 20th April. Monies sat in a Sundry Account, c
I contacted the 27th April requesting where my money was. Money still NOT received 12th May!! No one is taking ownership to resolve. As a working person cannot get to speak to anyone after 5pm. Speak to a different person each call having to explain everything all over again. No one resolves the issue and no one calls you back when they say they will. My pension was placed with them due to previous company found guilty of pension Fraud. Now they are just as bad. Reported to the FCA & Pensions Ombudsman again !!@

If I could give 0 stars I would.

Short summary:
I requested a withdrawal from my pension on 24/04/2026. Today is 11/05/2026. This has still not even been actioned by the team after misinformation, lies and false promises.

24/04/2026:
Stated withdrawal would take 5 working days. 5 working days have come and gone, and no action on account.
01/05/2025
5 Working days have passed (close of business) Monday. Still no action after multiple online form message submissions and calls. Now told that because a contribution has been made on 30/04/2026, I have to wait up to 5 days for this to settle into the account, and as Monday 04/05/2026 was a bank holiday, this will take it to 08/05/2026.

08/05.2026:
Now told that this will not settle until 11/05/2026, even though I was categorically told this would have settled by this date.

11/05/2026
Now being informed, it's going to take an additional 5 working days to process the transaction after the 5 additional days from the processing time. Then an additional 3-5 days for the payment to land into my account. (Honestly, you couldn’t make this up!) I halted the agent and told them the previous agent had messaged me in B&W stating this would be processed and paid out today (11/05/2026).

Phone call and end of the day to state that the payment on 30/04 has not been settled into my account yet. Honestly, I could smell the utter “BS” from here.

Now on a daily callback for the comedy show that is Standard Life. I will update this review daily on how it develops toward a resolution.

Current Outcome:
At present, my recommendation is to avoid Standard Life if you want honesty and transparency when they are handling your hard-earned money. Not only do you get vague and unhelpful responses, but you also get told false promises and incorrect timescales. I would go as far as stating they have lied to me, as I have promises in black and white that have not been kept.

I would have hoped this was an isolated incident, but I’m afraid this is worse than my previous experience in Feb 2026, where my official complaint was upheld. Seems the service is only getting worse, I’m sorry to say.

Interminable difficulties trying to withdraw one of my wife's pensions from a past employer. Standard Life's system wouldn't accept her name on the joint bank account - only mine, as I'm the first-named; their coding is incompetent in this respect.

After a week of meaningless, deflective responses via online messaging we were finally told just to go ahead and they'd sort this out at the back end. - They were given a bank statement for verification.

- All seemed to progress, and a confirmation letter appeared on the portal. Luckily I downloaded and archived this, because today (11/05/26) the account had completely disappeared from the portal! - Complete with all the messages that passed to-and-fro!

For clarity... part of what has disappeared here is evidence of their mishandling the account; evidence that might otherwise be presented to the FOS! - I find this suspicious, and it certainly engenders mistrust of Standard Life.

- There has been NO contact from Standard life via email and of course we now have no way of contacting them either!

- For clarity; as we are both partially deaf, the telephone option is NOT suitable... especially as this fails to provide a record of exchanges and is only available at inconvenient times... And that's even if their system weren't (as is evidenced by many complaints from others here here) plagued with problems.

All in all I'll be glad when we manage to extract the money and will be studiously avoiding ALL standard life products in the future...

This has been an appalling experience; my wife suffers from anxiety and is very very distressed at the moment... Formal complaints WILL be made and if necessary taken to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Very good experience with Standard life, quick and easy to transafers no hassle thank you. Excellent!

Good communication and clear understanding of what action I needed to take to allow the transfer to proceed.

Poor communication between Phoenix and Standard Life, not being informed of the correct process / procedures ( had 3 different answers from members of the same team?) Still waiting for my money after nearly 5 weeks , yes “My Money” Still waiting for a call from the Supervisor / Manager from a week ago?

Very professional & friendly service

From the beginning when I first called standard life for help with my pension to the end result every one I spoke to was very understanding and helpful as I recently experienced a brain hemorage making talking a difficult process,
Everyone was patient with me and helped me get all my ducks in a row,
Many thanks Mr A Drake.

I transferred another pension to standard life and it could not have been eny earlier. One message was all I had to send. Thay said it could take between 4 and 6 weeks. It only took 2 so happy with how it was done