I know the industry is fed up with the endless conveyor belt of consultations, but this one is different. It is not from a regulator or government, but from a voluntary group, asking you, the industry, what you would like us to do. So forgive us please as we believe this is vital.

PSIG is now 10 years old. I remember when we started out - full of energy and enthusiasm to put a stop to scams robbing people of their future retirement. Several versions of the Code of Good Practice on Combating Pension Scams later, we can genuinely say that we have made a real difference. Without us, countless £millions would have been lost to fraudsters, because at that time, there was so much denial of the problem and schemes were unsure of what they should do. We set a standard for due diligence on transfers that has been recognised as the “go-to” guide for scheme managers and we did this without statutory backing. Ironically, while later regulations gave more “oomph” to scheme managers, the drafting made the pendulum swing a bit too far to the cautious side resulting in complaints about delays in transfers. We don’t like unnecessary delays to transfers and our Code was always very clear about this, more needs to be done to get the balance right.

But please believe me, as someone who works with a number of pension scam victims, a delay in a transfer is much more preferable to the utter anguish suffered by a transfer to a scam. But I understand the need for efficient processing of the 95% of transfers that are scam free. And while I must stress that not all of the 95% will prove to have been a good decision, they will not end up supporting a luxury lifestyle for a scammer.

PSIG is a force for good, made up of incredibly good people dedicating their time selflessly, but after 10 years of DIY, things need to change. When we set up, we thought we would become redundant after a couple of years – indeed that was our objective, that we would no longer be needed. But scamming has evolved, and advanced, and schemes need more rather than less support. We expanded our remit and more good people joined us, but as can often happen the more you do the more that is revealed that needs to be done, particularly as scammers themselves have become more sophisticated and responsive to the barriers we put in place.

PSIG wants to do more, but we now need proper support to do our best. We can no longer muddle along on administrative tasks. I and my Deputy, Tommy Burns, spend a lot of time on these essentials rather than where our skills lie, and what we love to do, which is help people. I am not an expert on creating or managing a website, building excel documents or databases and I am certainly not an expert on Companies House filing minutiae (unfortunately I’ve now been fined twice for submitting the wrong forms – but try appealing and you’ll find out all about bureaucracy if you are an unfunded organisation i.e. no one really cares enough to help). I muddle along, taking more time and money than a skilled person would, but enough is enough. So, I unashamedly ask for help. If we are to go ahead with our work PSIG needs a support structure to ensure proper governance (and correct form filing), but we can’t do that without funding. We know we can’t get financial support from government or regulators, so we must ask the industry, hence our consultation. I spoke to Paul Maynard, our pensions minister, recently and he hopes that the industry responds positively to our consultation – he asked what he could do to help.

So, what would you like us to do? Would you like us to continue updating the industry Code? Would you like us to continue running our Industry Forum? Should we expand into offering an independent accreditation scheme and courses and seminars for schemes? Should we continue to lobby for change or should we simply say, “job well done” and enjoy the summer?

It’s up to you to decide. Please, we implore you, fill out the consultation and give us some insight!

And thank you to the team at PFO who have always been supportive of PSIG and have allowed us to use this platform to ask for help.

Margaret Snowdon, Chair - PSIG