Ad description
A website, www.pensioncashnow.net, for Pension Cash Now, featured text which stated "Do you work in Public Services, NHS, Councils, Armed Forces, MOD, Civil Servants, Teachers, Aviation Authority, Nurses, Police, Fire Brigade? The pension pots of loyal public servants are shrinking. If you do not submit your application to claim your cash now you could lose out on thousands. You can claim up to 20% of your pension value at ANY AGE with ZERO impact on your retirement nest egg. If you have a pension worth at £20k or more we can get you up to £5000. Why should your money go in some else's pocket?"
Issue
Greater Manchester Pension Fund, challenged whether the claim "You can claim up to 20% of your pension value at ANY AGE with ZERO impact on your retirement nest egg" was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Pension Cash Now did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Pension Cash Now's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code clause 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
Upheld
Because Pension Cash Now provided no evidence to substantiate the claim "You can claim up to 20% of your pension value at ANY AGE with ZERO impact on your retirement nest egg", we considered the claim had not been substantiated and therefore breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.
