The Pensions Regulator has confirmed that it has written 12 letters to trustees of defined benefit pension schemes regarding transfer activity, since 1 January 2018.

In a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) published on its site last week, 26 July, the regulator said that it had written to the trustees regarding transfer activity since the start of the year, but did not hold records for similar activity during 2016 and 2017.

Furthermore, the communications included a joint letter from TPR, the Financial Conduct Authority and The Pensions Advisory Service to be shared with members requesting transfers, “advising them to carefully consider the risks and options”.

TPR said: “Unfortunately, though we may have contacted trustees regarding similar activity during 2016-2017, we do not hold this information as we did not start recording this until 2018.”

Statistics published by HMRC today, revealed that 486,000 people have transferred out of their scheme since the 1 January 2018, with the total value of transfers amounting to almost £4bn.

The total number of people not covered by the TPR in the request for the period between 2016 and 2018 is approximately 1.2 million, amounting to a total transfer value of £17.4bn.

In May, responding to another FOI request, the regulator said for the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018, pension schemes reported approximately 72,700 transfers out, with the total value of those transfers totalling roughly £14.3bn.

However, it expects the figure to be in the region of 100,000 as not all schemes will have reported exactly how many transfers they carried out.

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