Financial Planner and wealth manager Quilter has urged the DWP to take urgent action to resolve pension transfer issues a year after the department’s review of regulations.

Two and a half years on from the introduction of pension transfer regulations there are still major issues persisting for pension savers, according to the wealth manager.

The latest figures from the Money and Pensions Service showed that more than 23,000 of the 28,118 amber flags raised over the past two and a half years were raised due to either an unknown reason or for a potentially low risk transfer relating to overseas investments.

Of the 28,118 MoneyHelper Pension Safeguarding Guidance sessions conducted since the introduction of the pension transfer regulations, just under half (46% or 12,888) were conducted with an attendee who did not know the reason why an amber flag had been raised on their pension transfer.

A third (36% or 10,153) were conducted after a flag was raised on potentially low-risk transfers relating to overseas investments.

The DWP has previously acknowledge that the regulation wording in relation to overseas investments was causing delays and issues for pension savers but it has yet to take action.

Jon Greer, head of retirement policy at Quilter, said while the regulations have protected many from fraud, the same issues that were recognised within the first few months continue to persist.

He said: “Earlier this year the DWP confirmed that work to consider whether the rules could be improved is ongoing, but it gave no indication of a timeline. Though it is good to hear that the DWP is making efforts to adjust its rules to eliminate the current issues, this arguably should have been done a year ago when it first published its review and could have made changes to prevent further disruption to pension savers.

“As a matter of urgency, the DWP must act to ensure that the divergence between policy intention and the practical application of the law when it comes to the overseas investments wording is ironed out as at present, there is no distinction between overseas investments that present a scam risk as opposed to those that do not.”