Consultation outcome

Pension scams

• From: HM Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions
• Published: 5 December 2016
• Last updated: 21 August 2017 — See all updates

This consultation has concluded

Download the full outcome

Pension scams: consultation response

PDF, 451 KB, 28 pages

Detail of outcome

The government is committed to protecting people from pension scams and pursuing those who perpetuate pension scams wherever possible.

The government consulted on a package of measures aimed at tackling pension scams in December 2016. This consultation response sets out the feedback the government received and its intended next steps on the following measures:

• a cold calling ban in relation to pensions which will include emails and text messages
• a tightening of HMRC rules to stop scammers opening fraudulent pension schemes
• tougher actions to help prevent the transfer of money from occupational pension schemes into fraudulent ones

Detail of feedback received

A full list of respondents is provided in the annex to the document.

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Original consultation

Summary

Seeking views on a package of measures to tackle three different areas of pensions scams, including a ban on cold calling in relation to pensions.

This consultation ran from
1pm on 5 December 2016 to 11:45pm on 13 February 2017

Consultation description

Pension scams can cost people their life savings, and leave people facing retirement with limited income, and little or no opportunity to build their pension savings back up. The government is committed to protecting people from pension scams; and pursuing those who perpetuate pension scams wherever possible.

This consultation sets out a package of measures aimed at tackling three different areas of pensions scams:

• a cold calling ban will cut off a key source of pension scams whilst also sending a clear message to consumers that they should hang-up if they are cold called about their pension
• current legislation gives pension schemes limited scope to refuse a transfer to a scheme which looks like a scam, even if they have legitimate concerns as to the safety of a member’s savings. We are consulting on clarifying the law so that firms can block pension transfers based on clear objective criteria
• single-member occupation pension schemes currently require no registration with The Pensions Regulator, and can be set up using a dormant company as the sponsoring employer. They are therefore an easy way for fraudsters to register a pension scheme with HMRC. We are consulting on making it a requirement that only active companies can register a pension scheme

Documents

Pensions scams: consultation

HTML

Published 5 December 2016
Last updated 21 August 2017 + show all updates

1. 21 August 2017

   Updated with the response to the consultation

2. 8 March 2017

   Update on consultation response

3. 5 December 2016

   First published.