Popular News
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17 pension firms sign up to Mansion House Accord
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Advisers changing retirement advice due to IHT shake-up
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Latest Blog
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HMRC’s January pension schemes newsletter announced changes to tax codes for pensions, and a few headlines followed proclaiming HMRC had finally fixed the over-taxation issue. It would be fantastic if that was the case, but despite nearly 10 years of getting it wrong, the problem isn’t resolved yet.
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Martin Tilley: How education can tackle pension scams
The dark reality of pension scams is that we don’t really know how common they are. Fraud is a crime which tends to have low reporting events and with pension scams, it’s no different. The emotional toll can be as large as the financial, with some people being too embarrassed to report that they have been the victim of a scam.
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Lisa Webster: Maximising protected tax-free cash
While 2024 ended with a lot of doom and gloom in the pension world following the big announcement on inheritance tax (IHT), there was some good news that may have slipped under the radar of some advisers.
The review was launched after the FOS was heavily criticised following an undercover investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, in March, which appeared to show that complaints were being handled by insufficiently trained officials.
The documentary suggested that some officials had to use internet search engines to find out about the products they were considering.
Mr Lloyd, who is vice chair of Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and is UK chairman of complaints handler Resolver, will lead the independent probe and his remit has also been revealed.
He is to be granted “full access and the resources necessary” to carry out a review and can go where the investigation takes him, with unrestricted access to FOS staff and all documents.
The review will be completed by the end of June.
A document published by FOS, in relation to the review’s parameters, read: “The review will assess the evidence presented by Dispatches in respect of each of the issues raised in the programme, to consider whether there are any matters of substance which should be addressed, although it will not be restricted to the issues raised in the programme.
“If the review finds matters for concern, it will seek to identify possible root causes for them (such as management action or inaction, cultural factors, staff objectives and performance management, organisational structure or any other underlying factor) and how they might be addressed.
“The review will also consider staff morale and the factors which contribute to it.”
It was also revealed that the investigation will look into the extent to which the current governance and arrangements for providing assurance about the work of FOS to its board, including whistleblowing procedures, “are applied effectively and consistently.”
As head of the review, Mr Lloyd will be able to make recommendations for strengthening governance and assurance arrangements in his final report.