New regulations put trustees ‘in the driving seat’ in the fight against pension scams

Our series on the Pension Schemes Act 2021 turns to draft regulations that require trustees to check that one of four conditions is met before paying a transfer value

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Pensions Regulator reported in August 2020 that around £30 million had been lost to pension scammers since 2017, according to complaints filed with Action Fraud. They also said that true losses were likely to be higher, partly because scams are not always reported, and partly because it can be several years before people realise that they have been scammed.

For pension scheme trustees and managers, the problem has always been that, even when their pre-transfer checks throw up concerns, there is little they can do to stop a member if (as is usually the case) the member is exercising their statutory right to transfer.

To try and move things forward, the Pension Schemes Act 2021 includes a power to make regulations to change the statutory transfer…