Ruthless fraudsters may have plundered as much as £14.6 billion from the nation’s pension savings, new figures reveal.
The shocking statistics from the pension industry show the scale of the crime has been grossly underestimated.
Official police fraud report figures had previously shown that just £31 million had been lost to pension scammers since 2017. Experts have always believed the true cost to be much higher.
Official police fraud report figures had previously shown that just £31 million had been lost to pension scammers since 2017. Experts have always believed the true cost to be much higher
Now, research by provider The People’s Pension has found that 1 in 200 adults in the UK – around 240,600 savers – have lost retirement savings to fraud.
The People’s Pension wants to see providers given greater powers to stop savers moving their money into scam schemes.
Director of policy Phil Brown says £2.5 trillion in pension savings was still at risk from scammers. He says: ‘This is a crime which causes untold misery and can wreck lives.
‘We want to see a broader definition of pension fraud to ensure that crime data provides an accurate picture, a central intelligence database, and support for victims.’
The firm says that if each scammed saver had lost the average pot of £63,700, then the total cost of the crime would be £14.6 billion.
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