In November 2023, Boots parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) revealed that it had offloaded Boots employees’ pension scheme to financial service provider Legal and General (L&G) in a £4.8 billion deal.
The pharmacy union raised concerns over the buyout at the time, saying that the deal could lead to a pension reduction for Boots employees wishing to withdraw their pension before they turn 65, and by December it had launched the “first stage” of a formal complaints process.
Read more: Ombudsman launches ‘lead case’ in Boots pensions dispute
In July last year, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) revealed that it had made the “unexpected discovery” that Boots changed pension rules “in secret”.
And in June, it announced that the pensions ombudsman had “begun an investigation” into the complaints – taking a “lead case” approach “due to the number of members potentially affected”.
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The PDA said at the time that it is supporting the lead case of “Mr F”, adding that “the parties agree that it covers core issues identified in the many unresolved complaints”.
And it revealed that the next step would be for Boots to respond to the dispute.
But what has happened since, and what are the next steps in the case?
Next steps
In an update issued last month (July 24), the PDA revealed that the ombudsman is investigating a second “lead case” in the dispute.
This is because there are “many hundreds of members making complaints about the same issues, including but not limited to pharmacists”, it said.
“It is expected that the determinations in the two lead complaints will cover all issues for the vast majority of potentially affected members,” it added.
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A set of frequently asked questions on the pensions ombudsman’s (TPO) website – updated last week (August 12) – set out that Mr F’s complaint was submitted to it on March 14 and approved on May 16.
The FAQs revealed that TPO has now received a “formal response” from Boots to Mr F’s and Mrs A’s – the second “lead case” - complaints and shared them with both parties earlier this month (August 6).
TPO has asked Mr F and Mrs A to provide it with “any further comments on the formal responses” from Boots while the adjudicator is “in the process of investigating” the complaints, it said.
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Next, the adjudicator will “review” the complaints “in light of any additional comments and present their findings to the ombudsman”, it added.
The ombudsman will then issue a “preliminary decision for each lead complaint”, which all parties will have the opportunity to comment on, before issuing a final determination in both cases, it set out.
However, TPO stressed that it cannot provide an estimate of the timescales as this depends on “a number of factors, including the amount and timeliness of information provided by the parties and the complexity of the facts and legal issues”.
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And it warned that anyone who “may want to make a complaint to TPO about this issue in the future” should complain to the Boots pension trustee under the scheme’s internal dispute resolution procedure (IDRP) now.
Those with a different complaint about the pension scheme should also raise it first through the normal IDRP “making it clear [their] complaint is different to the lead cases” – although they can bring it to TPO if “not satisfied with the outcome”, it said.
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It comes as Boots’ parent company last month revealed that its shareholders have given their “overwhelming support” to its acquisition by private equity firm Sycamore Partners – which is “expected to close” in the third or fourth quarter of 2025.
The sale appears to include Boots UK and will mean Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) will become a private company upon completion.
Meanwhile, Boots this month announced the launch of 13 new at-home testing kits, allowing patients to test for a range of health conditions “without needing to see a GP” and with results available on the NHS App.
