Protect your pension

Pension scams are on the increase and scammers have a variety of tricks to catch you out. They may approach you out of the blue over the phone, via text message or in person door-to-door, and will try to entice you with a ‘free pension review’, ‘one-off investment opportunity’ or ‘legal loophole’. The scammers may even pretend that the government has asked them to contact you. What they will not tell you is that you will probably never see your pension savings again.

The only time you are normally able to draw money from a company pension before age 55 is if you have had to stop work because of ill health. Otherwise, if you draw money from a pension before 55, you will have to pay a very high tax charge. On top of this, a number of people who have been persuaded to ‘cash in’ their pensions have not even received the money they were promised by a salesperson.

Please check the facts before you make an irreversible decision. Working with organisations across the financial industry and government, the Pensions Regulator launched a campaign in March this year to raise awareness of the danger of pension scams. Find out more by visiting www.pension-scams.com if you think you have been targeted.

There is more information about pension scams at:

www.fca.org.uk/consumers/scams

www.pensionwise.gov.uk/scams

How to avoid a pension scam

• Never give out financial or personal information to a cold caller.
• Look up information about the company’s background on the internet. If it has only been set up in the last year, be particularly careful. Any financial advisers should be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.
• Never be rushed into agreeing to a pension transfer.

If you have already accepted an offer you think is a scam, report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or through their website, www.actionfraud.police.uk