Ban looms on pension "consultancy fees" A ban on deducting charges from members" pension pots with their consent, known as "consultancy charging," is set to come in by November under government plans outlined on Monday. Draft regulations before parliament would stop employers from consultancy charging in schemes used for automatic enrolment. IN Pensions Consultancy charging allows employers to pay a professional adviser for pensions management work out of employee pension contributions. Research by Which?, the consumer group, found that the charges could reduce a member's first year savings by up to 50 per cent and said the impact of charges was particularly damaging for low earners and those who change jobs frequently. In May, Steve Webb, the pensions minister, announced plans to ban the practice for automatic enrolment schemes, saying, "it is vital that the pension savings of individuals who are automatically enrolled are protected." Under the draft regulations, a scheme that allows the deduction of charges from contributions will no longer be allowed to remain as an automatic enrolment scheme if those charges are made to a third party. The definition of a third party excludes trustees and providers. The draft regulations will not cover "legally enforceable" consultancy charging agreements in place before May 10 when the minister announced his plans for a ban. The government expects the ban could come into force by November at the latest. It added that it intends to extend the prohibition on consultancy charges to all qualifying schemes.