Pensions Expert reported in July about the campaign IFA Geraint Davies was compelled to undertake for MaPS to take his comments about potential consumer detriment seriously.
Davies lobbied for an update of the document so that it might direct any pension saver who might access their pension from outside the UK to take advice to avoid a potential tax liability.
The new guidance booklet now includes a short paragraph on the first page under who the booklet is for that reads: “If you’re not resident in the UK, planning to move outside the UK or have a pension(s) built up outside the UK, you should seek regulated cross-border financial advice regarding your options.”
An important document
A MaPS spokesperson told Pensions Expert:“Your Pension: Your Choices is an important resource for pension savers.
“As with all our content, we regularly update it and take on board feedback from various sources when we do so.
“The newest edition does include some additions and it’s available now via our MoneyHelper website.”
Yet despite MaPS recognising the need for immediate revision of the booklet, by the end of last week, there had been no communication with the hundreds of pension schemes, financial services companies or Sipp and advisory businesses who distribute this document to advise them the new version is available.
Don’t make a fuss and it will all go away
“Finally Moneyhelper (MaPS) has revised its Your Pension – Your Choices booklet, but why has this change taken so long?,” asked Geraint Davies, managing director of specialist financial planner Montfort.
“But it goes further. Why are UK pension schemes still writing to customers outside the UK offering them a tax free lump sum? Why have they not been told to stop sending this misleading information to overseas customers?”
The answer to that is simple, if surprising for such “an important resource for pension savers”. Despite publishing the new revised booklet on its website, MaPS has issued no press release or memo to advise them of the publication.
Furthermore, the MaPS spokesperson confirmed: “There are no plans to publicise the change to the document.”
Research by Pensions Expert has already identified many websites where a number of versions of the old document – unrevised materially for a number of years – may still be accessed.
None of those companies Pensions Expert spoke to had been made aware of the recently revised guidance booklet.
