The Money and Pension Service (MaPS) therefore commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to review the evidence around pension scams in the UK and worldwide to better understand the problem of pension scams. [...] Scale and impact 3.1 What is the extent of the problem? Noting the challenges of measuring the scale of the pension scams, such as underreporting and inconsistency and gaps in data collection, we find two ways of estimating the prevalence of pension scams in the UK: ● Looking at the total pension assets vulnerable to scams, which yield a high-end estimate of £2.5tn. [...] The Behavioural Insights Team / Pension Scams in the UK 9 3.1 What is the extent of the problem? Difficulties associated with estimating scale One of the objectives of this review was to estimate the scale of the problem in the UK. [...] The devastating impact is unsurprising, considering the large financial value of the pension funds and the extended period of time during which the individuals have to endure the effects of the theft (Spalek, 1999). [...] Typically, the scammers deliver a large portion of the released funds to the pension saver in the form of a lump sum, in exchange for a fee of 20-30% of the fund's value.
- Pages
- 82
- Published in
- United Kingdom
