Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Paragraph: 62
The regulations will identify potential indicators of a pension scam which would raise either red...
Recommendation
The regulations will identify potential indicators of a pension scam which would raise either red or amber flags. A red flag would allow a transfer to be blocked and an amber flag would allow a transfer to be paused until a person has received appropriate guidance. The red and amber flags being drawn up by the Department will need to strike a careful balance between protecting savers, being easily used by Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension freedomss Pension scams 59 trustees and not being overly restrictive. We recommend that the suitability of the red and amber flags should form part of the 18 month review and then be reviewed at least every 3 years thereafter.
Paragraph Reference:
62
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government has recently announced that, following close engagement with a broad range of stakeholders, online fraud will be included in scope of the Online Safety Bill. This means that companies in scope of regulation will need to take action to tackle fraud, where it is facilitated through user-generated content. It will increase people’s protection from the devastating impact of illegal activity like romance scams and fraudulent social media posts about investment opportunities. The Bill will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny in this session. However, the Online Safety Bill will not tackle fraud facilitated through paid-for advertising, such as adverts on search engines. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is considering how online advertising is regulated through its Online Advertising Programme. This work will look at ensuring that standards about the placement and content of advertising are effectively applied and enforced online to reduce consumers’ exposure to harmful or misleading advertising. This work will look at the role advertising can play in enabling online fraud and help inform our future efforts to tackle it. DCMS will be consulting on this issue later this year.