Pension scams are on the increase and scammers have a variety of tricks to catch you out. They may approach you out of the blue over the phone, via text message or in person door-to-door, and will try to entice you with a ‘free pension review’, ‘one-off investment opportunity’ or ‘legal loophole’. The scammers may even pretend that the Government has asked them to contact you. What they will not tell you is that you will probably never see your pension savings again. The only time you are normally able to draw money from a company pension before age 55 is if you have had to stop work because of ill health. Otherwise, if you draw money from a pension before 55, you will have to pay a very high tax charge. On top of this, a number of people who have been persuaded to ‘cash in’ their pensions have not even received the money they were promised by a salesperson. Please check the facts before you make an irreversible decision, and be wary even if you are already over age 55. The Pensions Regulator launched a campaign to raise awareness of the danger of pension scams. You can find out more at www.pension-scams.com or click here to read a leaflet about pension scams.