With many people making pension contributions to multiple providers throughout their working lives, it’s not surprising that some of these pots end up lost along the way.
A pension savings pot is considered lost if the provider is no longer able to contact the owner.
Over the last 6 years, the number of lost pension pots in the UK has doubled to 3.3 million – adding up to a total value of nearly £31 billion in missing pension funds.
Not sure if one of these could be yours? Here’s what you should know about missing pension pots, including how to find out if you have lost pension funds and how to recover them.
How are pension pots lost?
Some people may work for many different employers over several decades, with some periods of employment being relatively brief. Pension contributions made during short tenures are easy to overlook, especially if they occurred a long time before retirement.
If a saver forgets about a pension pot from a specific period of employment and loses contact with the provider, which often happens due to someone moving house without updating their address, the provider will be unable to reunite them with their lost pension pot.
However, this doesn’t mean the money is lost forever, as owners can track down lost pensions.
How to trace a pension pot
The first step to tracing a lost pension fund is to contact the associated employer, though this is only possible if the employer is still active, which may not be the case after many years.
If this is a dead end, the government offers an online service to help people find pension contact details, which is also available by phone or post. They can’t tell you if you have a pension pot or how much it is – they will only give you the contact details to enquire yourself.
This service can only help you track down a workplace or personal pension scheme if you know the name of the relevant employer or provider. If you don’t have these details, you may need to rely on a private pension tracing service that has access to information databases.
If you need professional help with pension planning and pension consolidation, our Barnsley accountants would be happy to help you build a tax-efficient pension pot.
Simply call 01226 298 298 or send an email to info@gbac.co.uk to discuss our financial services.