MP urges govt not to delay cold calling ban

Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Lloyd has written to the government urging it to implement the cold calling ban as soon as possible.

The Financial Guidance and Claims Bill was given Royal Assent last month, and included an amendment to introduce a cold calling ban, but it stated that the ban must be in place by the end of June 2018. However, as of yet, the government has not found sufficient parliamentary time to formally make the Bill a law.

Lloyd has now written to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Esther Mcvey, calling for the government to meet the deadline.

“Introducing a cold calling ban for pensions is something for which there was broad political support and a lot of work has been done in parliament to get it this far. The government is rudderless and hopelessly distracted by Brexit but this is an issue of vital importance for many, potentially vulnerable people, so I am urging the government get its act together quickly to meet the deadline for introducing the cold calling ban,” Lloyd said.

The idea to introduce a ban by June was a suggestion made by the Work and Pensions Committee in December 2017, as it warned the government action is desperately needed to protect individuals from scammers.

Earlier this month, the Treasury rejected calls by Committee chair Frank Field to extend the pensions cold-calling ban to in-person approaches. In a letter responding to Field, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, said that they did not intend to extend the ban to in-person introducers, which promote pensions transfers and generate leads for financial advice firms.

Glen wrote: “Cold calling is by far the most common method used to initiate pension fraud and therefore we believe that banning cold call on pensions is the most effective route to tackling scams.”

According to Glen, 97 per cent of pension cases in 2013 that were brought to Citizens Advice stemmed from cold calling.

“The responses to the government’s consultation on pension scams overwhelmingly supported the ban on pensions cold calling,” he added.

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