Hundreds of thousands of pension savers could be missing out on a £6,000 boost to their retirement pots. An important Government-backed online platform will soon launch, which should help address the widespread problem, which implicates some three million pension pots.
With the changes in life, you can easily lose track of one or more of your workplace pension pots. It's definitely worth checking if you have any retirement pots that have gone AWOL. One man from Greater Manchester shared a success story of how he tracked down a pension pot from the 90s that is now worth an impressive sum.
Billions of pounds missing
A recent survey from the Pensions Policy Institute suggests there are around three million pension pots out there in the lost property box, with some £18.7billion unclaimed.
58-year-old school caretaker Pete from Greater Manchester contacted the BBC Money Box show for help to track down a lost pension from the 1990s. He spent most of his career as a self-employed builder, so he does not have much saved up in a workplace pension.
The team looked into his case and managed to track down his missing pension pot, now worth around £8,200. Pete told the show: "I hope it will make my financial future a little bit easier, because before that I was on a state pension, and it always worried me that I would not have enough money to live, basically."
"Whereas this, I know it's not a lot of money, but if I invest it right, then it could potentially be a little bit of top-up for when I need it most."
New online tool
More help is on the way with locating your lost pensions, as the pensions dashboard will finally be going live. Money Box reporter Dan Whitworth explained: "Something that's been worked on by industry and Government for years now is called the pensions dashboard. Now, it has been hit by long delays and is estimated to have cost several hundred million pounds, but when it launches in the next financial year—so that's from April 2027 to March 2028—it will be a secure digital site online where people can log in and see all the pensions they've ever had in one place."
He said that industry experts believe this tool, showing all your retirement pots in one place, will be a "game-changer" in helping people manage their retirement finances. Debbie Abrahams, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, explained why the dashboard is so important.
Keeping track of all your pots
She said: "You can see on one page what your pensions are: state, private, personal. And you can see what you are likely to get as an income when you retire. That's what everybody needs to know and [it] enables people to plan as well as keep track of all your pots."
Rebecca Fearnley, from pensions guidance group the Money and Pensions Service, which is sponsored by the DWP, explained why people can lose track of their pensions. She said: "People have busy lives, they lose track of things, they've got family, maybe bills to pay, and increasingly a job for life and therefore a pension for life is a thing of the past."
"And so they just lose track of them. Pensions become a future problem, they're a future-me problem, and so you don't update your details, and these little small pots just get kind of lost in the mists of time, I guess." She said the biggest age group affected by the lost pensions problem is under 55s. Some 2.5 million of the missing pots thought to belong to people in this age bracket.
How can I check if I have any lost pensions?
If you want to have a look to see if you have any lost pensions, you can find the contact details for your pension provider using a tool on the Government website. You can also call the Pension Tracing Service for help on 0800 731 0175. Lines are open Monday to Friday from 10am to 3pm.
Another useful free tool is Gretel, which you can use to track down a variety of financial products, including pensions, child trust funds or investments.
