A couple of organisations felt that PSIG should not have to do what it does, but that the Pensions Regulator and/or the FCA should step up. I agree, but reality is that regulators believe they already do enough, and that the industry is where the buck stops (or starts). PSIG’s role is therefore to help the industry help protect customers and therefore avoid being found wanting at a later date – and this is a real risk.

We have championed historical victims of scams because they have no power and have fought hard to change the law and HMRC policy, so far with limited success, but keep going because to stop would leave a lot of people in a very very bad place.

PSIG volunteers have kept things going because every one of us is passionate about doing the right thing to ensure that pension savers don’t lose their shirts to scammers, while scammers become richer and smarter, spotting opportunities whenever one arises.

Fighting for justice for historic victims has been tough. I am hoping my latest cunning plan for a fair and straightforward way to end the trauma for victims will work, but so far my efforts have felt a bit like trying to pull a hat out of a rabbit. We are truly in the end game now.

But things might be changing – even the sun is shining while I write this.

PSIG won the inaugural Pensions Age award for the Pensions Association/Organisation of the Year. This gave us a huge boost to our morale at the time we needed it most. A trophy is lovely to have and we are very grateful for the vote of confidence. Our aim now it to follow that up with a business plan for the future.

I spent the last weekend with industry people, courtesy of the generosity of Simon Chrystal of WPS Advisory. Simon has a long history of championing savers making the right choices and he puts his money where his mouth is. He invited me to fly the PSIG flag at the prestigious Wembley Stadium where a number of pensions and technology experts held a roundtable to discuss PSIG’s role and future (as well as watching a couple of important footie games). There was a lot of plain talking and great ideas, which you’ll hear more about in the coming weeks.

Another pivotal point came with the support of the Victims Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, a real firecracker for justice and fair treatment. She has been horrified by the pain suffered by victims of pension and investment scams and has raised her battle flag. It’s been great to see someone in authority “get it” and want to do something about it. It’s like a sigh of relief for the moment, but I know that so much more will be needed.

I will be speaking at a conference in the House of Commons in a couple of weeks in the hope of prompting change to the way things work. I know we are in the middle of economic and social uncertainty, but that makes it even more important that we have a focused strategy on how we prevent scams and that includes zero tolerance for fraudsters and a policy for dealing with victims. The UK ranks 42 in the world fraud protection league table (Singapore is number one, with Ireland at number 9). The Nordics and Netherlands are all in the top 8 – with dashboards imminent, perhaps we should look to our neighbours with decades of experience of dashboards and fraud protection to help us do better in protecting our citizens and our pension schemes. In the meantime, PSIG continues to do its bit, but hopefully with a bit more support in future.

Margaret Snowdon, OBE, Chair of PSIG