Pension scammers performing with impunity says business physique

Pension scammers are performing with impunity as few have ever been held to account, in accordance with business physique The Pension Scams Business Group (PSIG).

The Authorities and HMRC are usually not doing sufficient to cease pension scams and help victims, in accordance with Margaret Snowdon OBE, Chair of the PSIG.

She claimed in a speech outdoors Downing Avenue yesterday that HMRC and the Authorities have acted like bullies of their therapy of pension rip-off victims.

She mentioned: “HMRC and the federal government additionally blamed the victims, however worse than that, they assumed that each one victims have been responsible of attempting to keep away from tax. That is removed from the reality. Peculiar individuals don’t perceive complicated pension guidelines they usually actually don’t affiliate pensions with tax, not to mention tax avoidance. None the much less, HMRC treats all of them as in the event that they have been responsible of dishonest the tax man.

“Due to this fact, on prime of shedding most of their financial savings, HMRC has pursued them for tax prices for over a decade; and has pursued them in an unnecessarily aggressive approach. Now to be honest to HMRC, their job is to gather tax that’s due. They are saying they don’t have any alternative, however it’s by no means affordable to bully and frighten individuals and deal with them criminals with none proof. It’s a case of when you might have a hammer, every little thing seems to be like a nail.”

She referred to as on the Authorities to vary pension taxation legal guidelines to present HMRC the facility to disapply tax prices in circumstances the place losses have been as a result of dishonesty by a 3rd social gathering.

In her speech she mentioned PSIG have considerations about suicides, bankruptcies, hardship and extreme welfare points amongst victims of pension scams as a result of HMRC’s concentrate on recovering tax from the taxpayer moderately than from the fraudsters.

Greater than £2.6bn has been stolen by means of funding fraud within the UK for the reason that begin of 2020, in accordance with analysis by the Pensions Administration Institute earlier this month.

The information, obtained by means of FOI requests, confirmed there have been nearly 100,000 victims of funding fraud between 2020 and 2023.

The Pension Scams Business Group is a voluntary physique created by the pensions business to assist share good apply and cut back the danger of scams by means of constantly utilized sensible due diligence and sharing info on real-time rip-off threats and traits.