DWP warned it needs to resolve pension delays 'as matter of urgency'

The Department for Work and Pensions has been warned by experts it needs to "urgently" resolve pension transfer issues. Financial Planner and wealth manager Quilter has urged the DWP to solve issues a year after the department’s review of regulations.

23,000 of the 28,118 amber flags raised over the past two and a half years were raised due to either an unknown reason or for a potentially low risk transfer relating to overseas investments, figures released by Quilter today reveal.

Of the 28,000, a whopping 12,000 were conducted with an attendee who did not know the reason why an amber flag had been raised on their pension transfer. 10,000 were conducted after a flag was raised on potentially low-risk transfers relating to overseas investments.

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Jon Greer, head of retirement policy at Quilter, said in a statement alongside the warning issued today (Wednesday June 12): “Earlier this year the DWP confirmed that work to consider whether the rules could be improved is ongoing, but it gave no indication of a timeline.

"Though it is good to hear that the DWP is making efforts to adjust its rules to eliminate the current issues, this arguably should have been done a year ago when it first published its review and could have made changes to prevent further disruption to pension savers."

Concerns have been raised that the pension transfer warning system is causing unnecessary delays to switches that carry little to no risk. The statement from Mr Greer went on, adding: “As a matter of urgency, the DWP must act to ensure that the divergence between policy intention and the practical application of the law when it comes to the overseas investments wording is ironed out as at present, there is no distinction between overseas investments that present a scam risk as opposed to those that do not.”