I have gone through highs and lows and been so tired that, for the first time ever, I fell asleep on a train from Edinburgh and only got off at my station because an attentive conductor spotted that I was supposed to leave.
As usual, the lows came exclusively from my long-term battle for fair treatment of pension scam victims. A sense of right and wrong and ultimate trust that government deep down cares about its citizens keeps me doing my best to explain the harm being done by 20-year-old rules, but I’ve really found the bottom of the well this time. I proposed a tax settlement scheme to be fair to both victims and HMRC, but it has been blown out of the water.
Why do I take it all so personally? Well, it’s hard to watch a grown man weep in despair and not be moved. It’s hard to hear a respected government minister admit that they don’t care and not want to scream from the rooftops. It’s hard to learn that a victim was so distressed that he wanted to commit suicide, thinking that by doing so HMRC’s tax demands would fall away and his life insurance would pay out. He was pulled back from the brink only by being told that his widow would end up penniless as well as on her own.
What kind of country have we become when our leaders ’don’t care’ about this? Unsympathetic to the plight of nurses, firemen, postmen, baggage handlers, who they believe were complicit with the fraudsters who legged it with their pension savings? What kind of country are we when MPs promise to fight for justice and then crumble when Treasury nobbles them (well there goes my Damehood!)?
I have been too naive believing that 30 years of well-meaning activism would matter – that being polite, informed and reasonable would be enough to move systems. It wasn’t. And that’s a very hard pill to swallow when so many people continue to suffer.
Yes, I am down in the dumps, but it’s not quite time to throw in the towel. Too many lives are at stake for me to wallow in anger and self-pity. However, I do want the pensions industry to stand up and be counted.
What can you do?
- Be fully aware of the issues and what is happening to customers on our watch.
- Be vocal about the need for change – please don’t just shrug and get on with the day job.
- Think about how your company or organisation could help support victims who do not understand why they are blamed for their losses and treated more harshly than tax evaders and fraudsters.
The easy thing would be to set up a fund to effectively pay the unfair tax bills, but the industry has already paid towards compensation schemes to protect pensions customers from harm. However, those schemes are limited in what they cover. The FSCS only applies where UK adviser firms go out of business and the compensation is capped at a low amount. The FCF compensates schemes, not members, and while it covers the tax charges of those schemes, it does not cover the charges levied on the members. Complaints to the FOS, TPO as well as private legal action against the fraudsters and weak regulation are all time barred because of the 15-year battle for justice against legal but unfair tax charges.
The good news is that the Home Office is now more determined to go after promoters of tax avoidance schemes and is building a new fraud strategy. This is 15 years late, but better late than never.
The other good news is that a few victims of the Ark pension fraud, who protested their innocence from the start have opened brown envelopes stating that their tax returns for 2011 (yes 2011) have finally been investigated and that no adjustments are due after all. After 15 years of relentless hounding and stress. No apology for the harm done. No compensation to make up for missed holidays, nights out, years of doctors’ prescriptions. As one victim said with tears running down his cheeks:
“You f’ing b*st…ds. What does this even mean? I gave you all my bank statements years ago, I told you I got nothing.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself - politely of course!
Margaret Snowdon, Chair – PSIG
