Tony Warrington, one of RMT’s longest established call centre operatives talks about his role and life at RMT.

“My role at RMT is to make pension review appointments for clients and also to help new staff with getting used to the systems. Any new member of staff will receive a week’s training so by the time they start working on the phones they will have a thorough knowledge of pension regulations and the service we offer, but it can take them some time to get used to the systems, so I help them with things like booking appointments on the system. I’m also on hand to answer any questions that might arise as they start making calls.

“When I call a potential client I talk to them to find out firstly if I can help them and then how I can help them. Most people are not aware of the charges applied to their pensions.

“Traditionally pension statements are the sort of thing that people receive in the post and simply file straight away into a drawer, sometimes without even opening. Often when I’m speaking to a potential client they are not aware of what’s on their latest statement or that they are effectively paying to have their pension looked after. A lot of people also aren’t aware that they can do something about it.

“Fees on older pensions were traditionally much higher, before the FCA got involved and so it’s likely that someone with a pension that hasn’t been reviewed for many years could actually be paying up to four times more than they need to in fees.

“My role is to find out what kind of pension they have, estimate the likely fees they will be paying and determine whether a pension review will be worthwhile for them. I’m not a financial advisor so I cannot give them any advice on their pension, but I can illustrate the benefits of a pension review.

“The main advantage of a pension review is that it costs nothing, just an hour of their time to establish if their pension is performing at its best for them. As all the Independent Financial Advisors we work with are FCA regulated, they will only advise a person to transfer their pension if it will leave them financially better off as a result. If a financial advisor reviews a pension and establishes it is performing well, his or her advice would be to leave it where it is, so it really is a win-win situation for anyone having their pension reviewed – they either receive peace of mind that it’s performing well or have the option to transfer it and become financially better off when it comes to retirement.

“I very much enjoy working for RMT, they are fair employers and it’s a nice office to work in. I enjoy the office environment but for many the flexibility of being able to work remotely from home, saving on travel costs is what really appeals.”