PSIG consults on future and funding
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The Pension Scams Industry Group is consulting on its future as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. It is asking industry’s views on the services it does and could provide, whether to continue or wind up, as well as potential funding models for the currently unfunded body. The consultation closes on 31 July.
Its consultation asks, among others, how it should raise awareness of scams, share knowledge and how it should support victims.
It also proposes different funding option for the future, being currently without any funding – PSIG points out that registration, maintenance and development of its website are paid for by PSIG chair Margaret Snowdon, while PR agency Kate Boyle PR provides its services free of charge.
Snowdon said PSIG has set the standard and now needs to decide whether it should continue – with the body’s aim being that it is no longer needed – or develop it further.
“Without a basic infrastructure, the burden on our volunteers is considerable and, quite frankly, PSIG is ultimately unsustainable in its current form. To continue to address the evolution of scamming on behalf of the industry, we need resources, and we urge industry to complete the survey and feedback to us,” she said.
Snowdon added that PSIG was “willing to keep going, we want to keep protecting members from losing their hard-earned pensions by helping the industry to combat the scammers, but we need more help. It’s really up to the industry now to decide.”
The body proposes various options for funding:
- corporate membership fees;
- sponsorship or donations;
- event fees;
- ‘a la carte’ where separate pricing is applied to individual PSIG services; or
- a combination of the different options.
PSIG is run by a group of volunteers from the pensions industry who work to counter scam activity in the pensions sector. It has created a code of good practice for protecting members from scams, has set up and runs the Pension Scams Industry Forum with almost 100 member organisations, and is part of the Pension Scams Action Group alongside government departments and regulators.
The group counts among its achievements that it successfully set out the need for regulations to give trustees and providers greater power to stop scam transfers, resulting in the ‘flags’ system for pension scheme transfers. PSIG is currently working with the Department for Work and Pensions, which is reviewing the relevant regulations.
If PSIG is still needed, how should it be funded?
