A ban on cold-calling in relation to pensions:
Some 97 per cent of pension liberation cases brought before the Citizens Advice Bureau originated through cold-calling. I’d warrant that many readers of this article would at some point in time have been offered a ‘free pension review’ claiming their current pensions are ‘underperforming’.
Current cold-call restrictions apply only to FCA-regulated parties, so miss the culprits of liberation or scam-investment proposers. The document proposes a ban on all cold calls relating to pensions to be brought in through primary legislation. Legitimate calls, where a request for information has been made for information, will be excluded from the ban. Sadly, the government does not have the power to ban calls made from overseas where the calling company is not registered in the UK.
With these measures, coupled with any other ideas from the industry that are asked for in the consultation, the government hopes the message to consumers will be clear. Through the publication of these actions and promoted education through other parts of Project Bloom, consumers will be sufficiently informed to ensure they do not engage with promoters of inappropriate schemes or investments.
Ian Stewart is joint managing director and pension consultant at Dentons Pension Management
