Compensation claims for poor advice soar

● Compensation payouts to victims of poor advice about pensions and investments have more than tripled over the past decade, according to new data from the Financial Services Compensation

Scheme (FSCS).

The FSCS, which pays out to clients of firms such as independent financial advisers, rather than when pension schemes fail, paid out £453m in 2020-2021, up from £130m in 2012-2013.

The Financial Conduct Authority, the

City regulator, said the data underlined the need to crack down on poor advice.

● New rules could require your employer to encourage you to take advice before cashing in your pension.

At present, only members of final-salary pension schemes contemplating transferring their savings to a nonguaranteed scheme are obliged to take financial advice before they do so.

However, ministers are concerned about the pension choices made by a much broader range of older people.

They therefore propose to require occupational-pension scheme trustees to ask members accessing their pensions to take financial advice on their options, or to explicitly opt out of doing so.

● Thousands of people claiming their state pensions for the first time are suffering serious delays, the

Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted. Staffing difficulties at the DWP, exacerbated by the pandemic, have led to significant backlogs as officials process pension claims made by people about to turn 66.

Some claimants, including those with little or no income on which to survive, have now been waiting months for their money. The DWP says the system should be back to normal by the end of October.