After a decade of volunteer-led work on addressing scams in pensions, the Pension Scams Industry Group needs support and engagement in order to continue, writes its deputy chair Tommy Burns.
As the election campaign enters its final few weeks, the Pension Scams Industry Group (PSIG) seeks not votes, but rather the thoughts of pension professionals across the industry in response to our consultation, published last month.
Open until 31 July 2024, it is aimed at pension trustees, advisers and administrators – indeed, anyone with an interest in protecting pension scheme members from scams. It seeks to establish a mandate to continue, one that is shaped by the views of the industry itself in terms of the value proposition.
We want to ask the industry what they would like to see us do next, how we can best support them and, importantly, how they can support us. It’s easy to sit on the sidelines, have a view and reap the benefits, or indeed criticise, but we all have a role to play.
We are asking what role the industry is now prepared to play – to take a more active position in the future of PSIG and, more importantly, preventing members’ lives being ruined.
The story so far
Established in 2014, PSIG is a voluntary group of technical specialists, directors, consultants, financial crime prevention officers and lawyers. We have spent 10 years trying to combat the scourge of pension scamming and to prevent pension scheme members from falling victim to this life-destroying crime and we believe we have done a good job.
We have produced a Code of Good Practice, first issued in 2015 and regularly updated since, which is used extensively throughout the pensions industry helping guide trustees and administrators in mitigating the risk of making transfer payments to pension schemes where there may be the potential for a scam.
The Code is also referenced in Pension Ombudsman decisions and in the new General Code of Practice.
We established the Pension Scams Industry Forum (PSIF), which sees representatives of 80-90 pension schemes and providers meet to share knowledge of known and emerging potential scam risks and to identify key themes, evolving techniques and new approaches. Trying to stop things before they even start – information is power.
PSIF also enables participating schemes and providers to more fully understand perfectly legitimate structures and investments that they may be encountering for the first time.
What PSIG does
We fully participate in industry – undertaking surveys, consultations and engaging openly and consistently with the press to update, inform and educate.
We represent industry on the Pension Scams Action Group (PSAG), alongside the Department for Work and Pensions, the Financial Conduct Authority, HM Treasury, the Money and Pensions Service, National Economic Crime Centre and the Pensions Regulator.
We actively participate in strategy and communication groups, with a focus on improving public awareness and non-legislative interventions. We have also played a leading role in victim support activities, engaging with various pensions ministers and parliamentarians in this regard.
It feels as if we have hardly drawn breath and we are immensely proud of what has been achieved through the hard work and determination of all the volunteers (and their employers) involved, upon whom we have been entirely reliant to do the job that needs to be done. However now, at this important juncture, more is needed.
A tipping point
As many voluntary groups can experience, we are at a tipping point in our evolution. Do we stop, and appreciate the work done to date, or gather troops and move forward?
To move to the next stage, we need access to formal support and dedicated funding – and we aren’t too shy to ask.
There is so much more still to be done. Scammers continue to evolve so it is vital to stay one step ahead – just look at the recent case involving millions of pounds transferred to various overseas pension schemes.
Please don’t watch from the sidelines and risk getting an outcome that you don’t want. Take part in our consultation and make your vote count!
Click here to participate in the PSIG consultation.
Tommy Burns is deputy chair of PSIG and a non-executive director of Concept Group and Kilgour Wealth Management.
