7 days


7 Days is a weekly round up of developments in pensions, normally published on Monday afternoons. We collate this information from key industry sources, such as the DWP, HMRC and TPR.

In this 7 Days

DWP announces review of TPR

On 13 February 2023, the DWP announced the appointment of Mary Starks to lead a review of TPR, with the aim of delivering a report in May 2023. This is in line with the expectation that public bodies are reviewed each Parliament. The review hopes to identify efficiency savings of more than 5% where possible.

FCA publishes webpage on reporting concerning pension transfer requests

On 17 February 2022, the FCA published a webpage requesting that trustees report serious concerns about pension transfers to the FCA by email. The FCA requests reports about issues including:

  • individuals providing unauthorised advice on pension transfers, and
  • increases in the volume of transfers advised by the same adviser,

as well as other issues which would raise a red or amber flag under the transfer regulations. It also sets out issues to consider if trustees think somebody may have given unauthorised advice, or if trustees have identified an unusual pattern of “switches” within a DC scheme or a sharp or unusual rise in transfer requests involving the same firm. Details of how to report concerns and the information to provide are given on the webpage.

This is in addition to, and does not replace, other existing reporting processes. See TPR’s guidance on avoiding pension scams for more details.