Chancellor Philip Hammond is believed to be ready to ban pensions cold calling in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday (23 November) after a vociferous campaign by pensions campaigners and the financial services sector including a number of financial advisers including Darren Cooke of Red Circle Financial Planning.

There was growing concern that the number of cold calling scams has been rising rapidly following the pension freedoms which allow people to take their entire pension pot as cash at age 55. Read more about Darren Cooke's campaign here http://www.financialplanningtoday.co.uk/news/item/6665-campaigning-planner-outright-cold-call-ban-looks-possible#.WDBAOaKLSEI

Fines of up to £500,000 could be on the way and the practice of targeting consumers with pensions cold calls to try to encourage them to shift their pension elsewhere, often to scam schemes, would be made illegal.

Mr Hammond is also believed to be likely to announce additional measures to help protect consumers from ruthless companies trying to encourage people to use the pension freedom rules to transfer their pensions, often at the risk of never seeing the cash again.

One of the expectations is that the Chancellor will make it hard to establish scam schemes in the first place and to transfer money into them. It is believed that Mr Hammond will stop short of banning, or trying to ban, text messages and emails at this stage but this may be on the cards for later.

Pensions cold calling is believed to be a growing problem and the FCA and other pensions bodies are keeping a close eye on the problem.

Former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altman said: “Well done Philip Hammond - we have to do whatever we can to protect the public against fraudsters. Vulnerable elderly people are being called and offered free 'pension reviews' which lead to them losing their entire life savings.

“We need to be able to give the clear message that if someone contacts you out of the blue about your pension, they are breaking the law, they are criminals. By making cold calling illegal, it is much clearer for the public that they just should not engage with such people.

The government has tried a number of initiatives to tackle the issue but with little impact so far. Baroness Altman said a ban on cold calling “is obviously not going to stop all scams, but it gives people a fighting chance of recognising the dangers before they engage.”

She wants the government to go further and find ways to stop pension firms transferring people's pensions into scam schemes although she admits that will not be easy.