On the go: A cross-party group of MPs and Lords have united to better protect pension scam victims and develop a range of policies to prevent scammers from operating.
The new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pension Scams held its first meeting, in Westminster on Monday, to discuss ways in which it can protect and warn the public about ongoing risks they face in regards to pension scammers.
Spearheaded by former pensions minister Ros Altmann, the group's aim is to protect the public from pension scams and secondary scammers; give scam victims a representative collective voice; and signpost victims to support and facilitate the development of preventative and supportive policy initiatives.
Baroness Altmann said that as coronavirus causes more people to stay at home, the risks of being caught by online or cold-calling scammers will increase, and so the formation of a group to put a stop to this is more important than ever.
She added: "Government and regulators have been trying to deal with this problem for years, but it continues to worsen, and this new APPG is being established to work together across political party lines, to find ways of protecting and warning the public about the ongoing risks they face."
Often the tactics used by fraudsters are to persuade savers to transfer their money into high-risk investment opportunities, or high-return special pension funds, which are made to sound like an attractive proposition.
Baroness Altmann argued that "it is vital that we improve early warning systems and liaison between advisers, providers and regulators, so that more scams can be prevented".
"The Regulatory system has focused mostly on trying to catch the criminals after fraud has already occurred – but this takes such a long time that many more people have usually lost out by the time any action is taken," she said.
So far 32 parliamentarians have stepped forward to be elected to the APPG, including Jack Dromey, shadow pensions minister.
This article originally appeared on FTAdviser.com.
