You earned it.
You should have it.
As many as 1 in 20 people could be missing out on pensions worth, on average, £9,500 each.
How do you lose a pension? Maybe you moved home and didn’t remember to tell your pension provider your new address. Paperwork can easily get lost. And possibly you didn’t even realise you were in a pension.
But it’s still your money. Finding it could transform your retirement.
Go on your own pension safari.
Six good reasons to trace your pension
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1. Find a lost pension, and you’ve instantly got more retirement income. Even with the cost of living rising, you can look forward to a more comfortable retirement than if you hadn’t found the money. You might even be able to retire earlier than you thought.
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2. It’s a good excuse to pay your pension some attention. You might find other things you want to do – such as checking your investment choices are still in line with when you want to take your benefits, and how you feel about investment risk.
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3. Pension providers charge to manage your pot. If the charges on your lost pension are high, you could save money by moving it to a provider with lower charges.
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4. You could consider combining your pots into one, making everything easier to manage and keep track of.
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5. Many older pensions don’t offer online access. You could get this by moving your savings.
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6. And it could give you more benefits to pass on to your loved ones when you die.
Beware of the pension pirates!
Pension scams are on the increase in the UK, despite government action and awareness-raising campaigns. Research by MoneyHelper suggests that there could be as many as eight scam calls every second and the FCA is concerned that the cost-of-living crisis is making people more vulnerable with scammers targeting pension pots.
Treasure finders
To inspire you, here are a few real-life pension tracing stories. Names have been changed to protect their identity. More treasure hunters’ stories.
Two phone calls to £27k
When he heard about National Pension Tracing Day John, a company CEO, remembered that in his 20s he’d worked for a company for four years – but didn’t know if he’d been in their pension scheme. He phoned the company, who gave him the number of their pension administrators. He phoned the administrators and they asked him to provide proof of identity. So he did.
A week later he received a benefit statement with pension benefits worth £27,000. Two weeks, two phone calls, proof of identity – £0 to £27,000.
Source: Punter Southall Aspire
Employer helps employees find treasure
Susan, the HR director of an engineering company, suggested the company should encourage their employees to take part in National Pension Tracing Day. Susan used our employer toolkit to help staff go through the steps to trace lost pensions.
Two of the employees who took part found lost pensions. One of them found pensions worth £80,000. ‘This shows the value of National Pension Tracing Day’, Susan says. Her company is keen to take part again this year.
Free communications toolkit
Spread the word. Share it with your friends, family and colleagues and help them find lost pensions.
Do you have a pension tracing success story?
Tell us about it and inspire others!
Share your journey
Use our hashtags to spread the word on social media. As many as 1 in 20 people could have lost a pension – your friends and family could be among them.
Let’s get pensions trending!