On the go: Some 10.6m pension savers could see their financial information fall into the hands of fraudsters if the government goes ahead with its plans for a statements season, PensionBee has warned.
Pensions Expert reported in August that the Department for Work and Pensions is looking at options to develop a statements season proposed in its recent, simpler annual benefit statements consultation, in a bid to standardise and simplify these documents.
Guy Opperman, minister for pensions and financial inclusion, has recently defended this proposal, which would see all savers receive their annual pension statement in the post at the same time, despite criticism from the industry.
However, with pension scams on the increase, the statements season brings a big concern around mail fraud, PensionBee warned.
According to a survey of 250 individuals, the pensions consolidator found that 40 per cent of respondents are moving or have moved home since the pandemic, and 33 per cent of pension savers do not feel concerned about updating their address.
PensionBee noted that moving house and changing jobs are the most common reasons that savers lose track of their pensions — either forgetting to update their contact details with their provider, or losing their providers’ details themselves.
Considering that there are 32m workers in the UK aged 16 or over, and that the average pot size is £21,164, PensionBee estimates that £64.4bn of total savings are at risk of being lost to mail fraud and pension scams as a result of expired contact details.
The rise in pension scams and the risk of postal data breaches could lead to an increase in call centre fraud, with the potential for catastrophic results for pension savers, the provider added.
Romi Savova, chief executive of PensionBee, noted that “while the pensions minister’s plans are well intentioned, little thought has been given to the grave risks this could pose to savers”.
She said: “Statements season or no statements season, the vast majority of pension providers still rely on post to communicate with their customers, so it’s imperative that savers always ensure their contact details are up to date when they move house.
“Losing track of hard-earned savings can have a significant impact in later life, and could see millions of people working for far longer than they would otherwise need to before they can afford to comfortably retire.”
