Pensioners told ‘check’ as thousands have £9,000 in ‘lost pensions’ | Personal Finance | Finance

Millions of pension pots are thought to have been forgotten by their owners, with the average lost account containing £9,470 according to the Pensions Policy Institute. However, thanks to newly developed tools, the process of reclaiming your lost funds could be far simpler than most people realise.

One financial expert has outlined precisely what people need to do to track down and reclaim their lost pension pots, with more than £31billion left unclaimed across the UK. Those who changed jobs frequently may be particularly susceptible to having forgotten pots sitting in old workplace schemes.

Antonia Medlicott, Founder and Managing Director of financial education specialists Investing Insiders, shared: “Finding old pensions may initially seem like a daunting task, but recent tools have made it far easier than it used to be.

“Your first step is to uncover the names of the pension providers used by your previous employment.”

A pension pot is officially deemed ‘lost’ when the pension provider is unable to get in touch with the owner. This can occur when someone has switched jobs, changed their contact details or moved address without notifying the provider or transferring their money into their new workplace pension scheme.

Those who have moved between jobs, particularly if they were only employed somewhere for a brief period, may have no recollection of saving into a workplace pension there. Others may presume that, given they hadn’t contributed much, it simply wouldn’t be worth the hassle of transferring their savings across to their new employer.

Since pension pot providers are unable to get in touch with account holders, the only genuine way to determine whether you have a lost pension pot is to track it down yourself. The Gov.uk website offers a Pension Tracing Service that can assist with this.

Antonia highlighted some other options to track down the pension providers: “Do this through online pension tracking services, old paperwork, and emails.”

Once you have your pension provider’s details, you’ll need to get in touch with them to begin the process of reclaiming your pension pot. Antonia advised: “Be sure to have your National Insurance number, previous addresses, and the dates you worked for the relevant company to hand.

“Some free services will do everything for you, including locating lost pots, contacting your old providers, and bringing them all under your control in an easier-to-manage account.”

After obtaining the details of all your forgotten pension pots, one possibility is to merge them all into a single pension pot or scheme, also referred to as collating or consolidating your pension.

This is where things can become somewhat more complex, as Antonia cautioned: “You should consider combining them to make them easier to manage in the future, and potentially reduce the number of fees.

“However, be sure to speak with an expert advisor first, as it may not always be the best financial move depending on your circumstances.”