Pension scams can come in different forms, from scams to trick you into transferring your pension savings into fake schemes, to phishing to get hold of your personal details.

Below are examples of pension scam tactics that might mean you’re dealing with a fraudster:

• Contacting you out of the blue
• Offering free pension reviews and one-off investment opportunities with ‘guaranteed returns’
• Offering you cash upfront
• Offering a quick transfer of money over to the new scheme
• Claiming you can access your pension pot before your normal minimum pension age
• Providing no documents to confirm the business you’re transacting with

It’s good to note that a professional looking website and convincing marketing material doesn’t necessarily mean the person you’re dealing with isn’t a fraudster.

Fraudsters may try to get your details by email, letters through the post, instant or text messages and cold calls.

Ban on cold calls

To help prevent pension savers from falling victim to pension scams, the government has passed a ‘pensions cold-calling ban’ to ensure any company that attempts to make unsolicited calls about your pension could be fined.

We support the government in helping savers avoid pension scams by making you aware of pension scams in our communications and pointing you in the direction of further help from government-backed bodies.

Who to contact if you’re worried about pension scams

You can ask Citizens Advice, the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) or the police for help and advice about scammers.

If you’ve already been approached and signed a contract, contact your provider immediately and call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

You can learn more about how to avoid pension scams on our website.

Or you can also find out more about how to protect yourself from pension scams on The Pensions Regulator’s website.

While Brexit caused some economic uncertainty in the UK, The People’s Pension structures its investments to manage the risks caused by events like Brexit. We invest across the world in a diverse portfolio of assets, not just in the UK and this helps us limit the impact of any single event on our members’ pension savings.

Your pension is protected by trust law and is legally separated from the finances of the company that looks after it.  For more information on how your savings are protected, visit our webpage about the security of your savings.

We are continuing to monitor the situation for impacts following Brexit and will base our investment decisions on in depth research and analysis, as we aim to meet our members’ long-term investment objectives.

You can monitor how the investment fund(s) your pension pot is invested in is/are performing or check our daily unit prices on our website.

If you’re planning to access your pension savings in the near future, you should take extra care. Choosing what to do with your pension savings is an important decision – consider getting some guidance or advice. Visit Pension Wise, a free and impartial government service, for online, face-to-face or telephone guidance. You can also speak to an FCA-regulated adviser to get advice based on your personal circumstances.  If you don’t already have an adviser, you can find one on the Unbiased website. Please note that an adviser may charge for their advice.

We’ve teamed up with LV= to provide our members with access to personalised, regulated financial advice.

Please note that LV=’s telephone advice service is a paid-for service. They’ll explain to you the cost of this service before offering you advice.

Find out how your investments are protected by FSCS

The People’s Pension is run by a not-for-profit organisation, People’s Partnership. The Trustee of The People’s Pension has appointed People’s Administration Services Limited as administrator of the scheme. People’s Administration Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA. Read our legal statement for more information.

So, to keep your pension pot safe, it’s held in trust. This means it’s completely and legally separate from your employer and pension provider.

If the provider (the company looking after your pension) becomes insolvent, the Trustee would appoint a new administrator and investment managers to replace them.

Your pension pot will simply carry on as normal.