Pension scammers are performing with impunity as few have ever been held to account, in accordance with trade physique The Pension Scams Trade Group (PSIG).
The Authorities and HMRC should not doing sufficient to cease pension scams and help victims, in accordance with Margaret Snowdon OBE, Chair of the PSIG.
She claimed in a speech outdoors Downing Avenue yesterday that HMRC and the Authorities have acted like bullies of their remedy of pension rip-off victims.
She stated: “HMRC and the federal government additionally blamed the victims, however worse than that, they assumed that every one victims have been responsible of making an attempt to keep away from tax. That is removed from the reality. Abnormal individuals don’t perceive advanced pension guidelines they usually definitely don’t affiliate pensions with tax, not to mention tax avoidance. None the much less, HMRC treats all of them as in the event that they have been responsible of dishonest the tax man.
“Due to this fact, on high of dropping most of their financial savings, HMRC has pursued them for tax prices for over a decade; and has pursued them in an unnecessarily aggressive approach. Now to be truthful to HMRC, their job is to gather tax that’s due. They are saying they haven’t any selection, however it’s by no means affordable to bully and frighten individuals and deal with them criminals with none proof. It’s a case of when you’ve a hammer, every part appears to be like like a nail.”
She known as on the Authorities to vary pension taxation legal guidelines to offer HMRC the facility to disapply tax prices in circumstances the place losses have been on account of dishonesty by a 3rd celebration.
In her speech she stated PSIG have considerations about suicides, bankruptcies, hardship and extreme welfare points amongst victims of pension scams on account of HMRC’s deal with recovering tax from the taxpayer moderately than from the fraudsters.
The information, obtained by means of FOI requests, confirmed there have been nearly 100,000 victims of funding fraud between 2020 and 2023.
The Pension Scams Trade Group is a voluntary physique created by the pensions trade to assist share good apply and cut back the chance of scams by means of persistently utilized sensible due diligence and sharing data on real-time rip-off threats and tendencies.
