The Government are going to ban pension cold calls

There has been media pressure to crack down on nuisance calls in relation to pensions. The public is worried about the effects of these calls in terms of annoyance but also the risk of scammers using data collected from pension cold calls.

The Government have decided, after a public consultation, to ban unsolicited calls in relation to pensions. Such calls will now be governed by an opt-in regime. In order to make a pension cold call, an organisation will need to ask for someone’s consent first.

The prohibition does not apply if the caller is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or is the trustee or manager of an occupational or personal pension scheme. Alternatively, an organisation can continue to make calls if they have an existing client relationship and if the customer might reasonably expect to receive a pension cold call. This means that even if you have an existing client relationship it does not override someone’s subscription to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

The DMA consulted with the Government before they made the changes and their intention was to crack down on lead generation companies working in this sector.

The consultation report states: “The vast majority of pensions cold calling is undertaken by lead generation firms, meaning that the ban will make the vast majority of pensions cold calls illegal.”

The problem is that preventing nuisance calls is notoriously difficult to do and while this measure will have an effect it won’t solve the problem. This is because rogue operators that already break the law will also ignore this new rule.

More information: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/ban-on-cold-calling-in-relation-to-pensions#history