{"id":14631,"date":"2018-02-19T15:09:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T15:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14631"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:09","slug":"shamelessly-bamboozled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14631","title":{"rendered":"‘Shamelessly bamboozled’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bParasitic\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 financial advisors have \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshamelessly bamboozled\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 British Steel pension scheme members, according to MPs who have warned of \u00e2\u20ac\u015banother major mis-selling scandal\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 conducted under the noses of hapless regulators.<\/p>\n

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Unite welcomed the report and called for authorities to \u00e2\u20ac\u015btoughen up\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 on vulture financial advisors and for the government to strengthen pensions legislation.<\/p>\n

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Last summer, Tata Steel restructured the \u00c2\u014115bn scheme in an attempt to provide more certainty for its 130,000 members.<\/p>\n

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The restructure came after Tata announced the sell off of its UK operations due to a hostile market environment.<\/p>\n

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Tata\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s British staff made the difficult decision to vote in favour closing the pension scheme to new contributions, in order to help safeguard the future of the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 8,500 employees.<\/p>\n

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Members were given the choice of moving their contributions to the Pension Protection Fund or a new scheme \u00e2\u20ac\u201c both of which offered reduced but guaranteed payouts.<\/p>\n

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Those who had not reached pension age were given a third option of entering a defined contribution scheme, entailing greater risks.<\/p>\n

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The work and pensions committee report stated that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfaced with making a life-changing choice in a hurry\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 many members chose the risker third option \u00e2\u20ac\u201c resulting in thousands being left out of pocket.<\/p>\n

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The committee savaged both the Pensions Regulator and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failing to make sure \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmembers were not left in the dark\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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The report said the restructuring meant \u00e2\u20ac\u015bperfect conditions for vultures to take advantage\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 were created.<\/p>\n

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The report stated, “Many BSPS members were shamelessly bamboozled by advisers into signing up to ongoing adviser fees and unsuitable funds, characterised by high investment risk, high management charges and punitive exit fees.<\/p>\n

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“Another major mis-selling scandal is already erupting and we therefore call on the relevant bodies to treat this as such and take urgent action.”<\/p>\n

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During the last 11 months, 2,600 pensions have been transferred from the scheme with a total value of \u00c2\u01411.1bn.<\/p>\n

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Work and pensions committee chair and Labour MP Frank Field said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOnce again we find the Pensions Regulator fiddling while Rome burns, when it should have seen this rip-off coming.<\/p>\n

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“All the responsible authorities must act, now, to stop more people being cheated.”<\/p>\n

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The committee recommended the Pensions Regulator undergo an internal safeguarding review to the learn from the scandal and called on the FCA to create an online register to help weed out rogue financial advisors.<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer for steel, Tony Brady, reiterated that members need to be aware of the dangers and urged those considering moving money to wait for all the information to be available \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbefore making an informed choice about the future of their pensions\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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In a joint statement, the steelworkers unions, including Unite, welcomed the committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s call to stop \u00e2\u20ac\u0098unregulated and parasitical\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 advisors exploiting people and demanded that the government, Tata and the Pensions Regulator take their share of responsibility for the scandal.<\/p>\n

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The unions said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is clear evidence from this report that some steelworkers were exploited and given poor advice on hugely important choices. Regulators need to toughen up when it comes to shutting down irresponsible financial advisers, and warning people about which firms to avoid.
\n <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe unions repeatedly called for government to take action to allow \u00e2\u20ac\u0098deemed consent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 – which would have allowed thousands of people to get the better outcome for their situation. While it is sadly too late in this instance, we welcome the committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recommendation that government should introduce legislation to allow for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098deemed consent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in future similar cases.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The unions added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe will continue to support our members who believe they have been ripped off and will keep lobbying government and regulators to ensure measures are put in place so that such a scandal can never again be allowed to happen.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bParasitic\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 financial advisors have \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshamelessly bamboozled\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 British Steel pension scheme members, according to MPs who have warned of \u00e2\u20ac\u015banother major mis-selling scandal\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 conducted under the noses of hapless regulators.   Unite welcomed the report and called for authorities to \u00e2\u20ac\u015btoughen up\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 on vulture financial advisors and for the government to strengthen pensions legislation.   Last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[430,269],"wps_subtitle":"Unite welcomes report into steel pensions scandal","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26390,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14631\/revisions\/26390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}