There’s currently £26.6 billion pounds of unclaimed pension money in the UK – do you have any lost pension pots?

6 min read 29 Sep 23

Summary

You may be wondering how it’s possible to ‘just lose’ a pension pot but this is a significant problem. According to The Pensions Policy Institute, in 2022, there were over 2.8 million* pension pots that are considered lost and have not been claimed by their rightful owner. If you think, over the course of your lifetime, it's common to change jobs, careers and potentially end up with multiple pension plans from different employers. Other life events can cause people to lose track of pensions too, for example, moving house and not updating pension providers with the new address. With a staggering £26.6 billion* of unclaimed pension money it’s certainly worth looking into.

This article will give you practical tips to help you check for lost pensions, reach out to past employers and stay on track for your retirement.

Dig through your records

First thing’s first - start by collecting as much information as you can. Look through your records for old payslips and correspondence from past employers. This includes any annual statements you may have received from each pension provider. If you don’t have these available, you can contact your providers and request copies. Alternatively you may be able to view them online if you’ve signed up for this service.

Reach out to past employers

Your work history can be a helpful guide for uncovering pensions. Looking through your CV, LinkedIn profile, tax records can help you uncover pension plans you might have been a part of. Even if you didn't actively contribute to these pensions, you might still have accrued benefits.

You can get in touch with past employers and they should be able to guide you on the pension schemes they provided and the benefits you might be entitled to. The moneyhelper website has a free guide and template letter you can use to contact previous employers and highlights what information you can ask and should provide.

Use the pension tracing service

If you're struggling to find the contact details of an old employer, or you don’t know the provider of a pension you can use the free Pension Tracing Service from the government. It searches a database of more than 200,000 workplace and personal pension schemes to try to find the contact details you need. This service isn’t able to tell you whether you have a pension or what its value is though.

Once you have those contact details you can check with past employers or the provider to see if you have any pension benefits that you didn’t know about. For example, you may have been automatically enrolled in a workplace pension and you may have accrued benefits even if you weren't actively contributing. It's always worth checking if you are unsure.

Find out how much your pensions are worth

Once you’ve gathered information on all of your pension plans, it's time to find out how much they might be worth. If you don’t have up to date paperwork or an online account, you can contact your pension provider and ask for a current valuation. Working out what you have now and what you might have in retirement allows you to help plan for the future.

Stay on track

To keep track of all your pensions, you could create a spreadsheet or a simple dashboard listing the pension providers and their current values. You can then actively amend the details when you receive new annual statements or for example increase your contributions. It’s probably worth including contact details for each provider as well to make life easier in the future.

Remember, it’s important to keep account numbers, passwords, or any sensitive information separate for security purposes.

Use online tools and calculators

Estimating how much income you might have in retirement is not an exact science. While annual statements often include projections, they’re usually based on several assumptions that may not be the case when you come to accessing your pension.

There are a number of online tools and calculators that can help you estimate income in retirement, for example, the moneyhelper calculator. These calculators are often free to use and allow you to change factors to see the difference they make to retirement income, for example, you could see what your income would be in the future if you increased your pension contributions now.

Look at the amount of state pension you could receive

It’s a common misconception that everyone will be entitled to a State Pension, but this isn’t always the case. The State Pension is built-up from National Insurance contributions – and in simple terms, you need to have paid enough into the ‘pot’ (or been exempt for specific reasons) to qualify.

The level of State Pension you’ll be entitled to will depend on your National Insurance record. You can find a forecast of your State Pension online, via the government’s website.

You’ll need to sign up for a Government Gateway ID, if you don’t already have one, to access your State Pension forecast – this service is free to use and can be accessed on gov.uk.

Finding help and additional sources of support

Once you have all the information and know how much money you have the next step is working out what income you’ll need to have in retirement to support your lifestyle. It’s often hard to budget in the short term, let alone having to budget for the next 15,20, 25 plus years because your money has to last as long as you do.

Having multiple pensions from previous employers can mean even more decisions and things to factor in, for example, does it make sense to bring all of your pensions into one place? Is it best to keep them separate if some have income guarantees? Getting financial advice can make a real difference both in terms of decision making and making your money work harder. A financial adviser will look at your current circumstances, and will be able to recommend a plan to make your money work harder and keep you on track to achieve the lifestyle you want in retirement.

If you are thinking about financial advice and would like to speak to someone, you can find a financial adviser that's right for you here.

*Source: The Pension Policy Institute, – Lost Pensions 2022: What’s the scale and impact?