The pensions industry has voiced its “widespread support” of the Work and Pensions Committee’s aims to integrate a cold-calling ban into the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill.

Hargreaves Lansdown head of policy Tom McPhail stated: “There is widespread support across the pensions industry for the government to do more to help protect investors from fraudsters. A ban on cold calling and better guidance are both likely to help.”

Former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann agreed that the Committee’s move is “absolutely right” and Royal London director of policy Steve Webb commented that there is “no excuse” for the government to continue to delay a ban on cold-calling.

“With every passing week, more and more people are being scammed, and a scam often starts with a call or email out of the blue. The scammers get more inventive and more creative with every passing week, and the danger is that regulators are always two steps behind,” Webb added.

Both Altmann and ABI director of policy, long-term savings and protection Yvonne Braun highlighted that a cold-calling ban for pensions is long overdue; making reference to a ban already in place for mortgages.

Braun said: “With mortgages already protected by a cold-calling ban it is high time pensions were given the same level of protection.”

Adding to this, Aegon head of pensions Kate Smith praised the Committee’s decision. “While Brexit is all consuming for the government, we believe that the proposal to legislate to prevent cold calling through the Financial Claims and Guidance Bill represents a great opportunity to make life harder for scammers,” she said.

The Work and Pensions Committee’s call for savers to be automatically enrolled into an appointment for free financial guidance regarding their pensions has also received industry support. Altmann claimed that the measures would “significantly improve consumer protection.”

“Ensuring everyone is auto-enrolled into guidance should help them make better-informed decisions and protect more people against scams. It can also help them understand the tax advantages of keeping money in their pensions for longer, to avoid losing some of the savings unnecessarily.

“Making the FCA responsible for banning both cold-calling and also the use of leads obtained from unsolicited approaches would best protect people.”

Nonetheless, when it comes to making free financial guidance from the government the default, a number of industry members have noted that this may need to be considered more thoroughly.

McPhail said: “Guidance at retirement is useful for many but it is questionable this can be delivered effectively to all those approaching retirement by public services alone. If it is to be made the default, the government should explore how to harness the resources of the pensions industry to engage and guide its customers.”

Smith shared a similar opinion: “While we want people to make informed decisions, ideally having spoken to a financial adviser, the proposal to make guidance a default option comes with huge practical challenges and requires further debate.”

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