Following pressure from numerous groups, the government will ban cold calls relating to pensions as of this summer.
This week the government set out new legislation which will prevent scammers from targeting people using pensions, and also gives provision to potentially introduce a ban relating to cold calls for financial products more generally. The ban will come into effect by June this year. The government amendment says:
“This new clause inserts a new power for the secretary of state to make regulations (subject to the affirmative procedure) banning unsolicited direct marketing relating to pensions. If the power is not exercised by June, the secretary of state must explain to Parliament why not.”
Avoiding Pension Scams
This move will hopefully help reduce the number of people that are scammed by pension cold callers – as we have previously cited, approximately 26% of adults have received some form of unsolicited contact (such as cold calls) about their pension. Research has also revealed that around 250 million cold calls are made in Britain every year, with 107,000 people responding to an approach, putting themselves at risk of being scammed. While the ban sends a clear message to people that cold calls regarding pensions should be ignored, scammers are devising more sophisticated ways of targeting victims. It is hoped that the ban will be the first step in a succession of measures against pension scams.
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