Lost Pension Pots Seeking Owners
Many people are worrying about paying for Christmas, but few are worrying about finding a lost pension pot. The number of unclaimed pension pots has risen to 2.8m, valued at £26.6bn. It is tricky to keep on top of pension schemes in a long career. Your workplace pension contributions are your money. Are you missing any of your pension pots?
It’s big money
Lost pension pots are worth on average £9,500 per individual. From mid-2018 to mid-2022, the total value of lost pension pots is worth about £7bn. Often caused by changing jobs and/or moving home. The success of government auto-enrolment pension system has meant that many young people lost track of their pension posts, as they were made unemployed during the pandemic.
Steps for finding a lost pension
- Look through old policy documents and bank statements for the provider. Talk to the pension provider via their website contact details.
- The Policy Detective is a commercial website which is free to trace old pensions. Must have the name the pension company that has your pension.
- If you know nothing about your pension or provider, then use your national insurance number, the name/address of previous employers to access the pension details via the Pension Tracing Service.
The Pension Tracing Service is a free government service. Phone them or use their online directory. Although the pensions industry is improving tracing methods, experts reckon that two thirds of workers have multiple pensions. Around 17% of workers have lost track of two pots and another 6% have lost track of three or more pots.
The future
A good DWP (government) idea is to create pensions dashboards, which would aim to provide a single point of access for people to see all their pension pots, and their State Pension in one place. Let’s hope this happens, as many good government initiatives never germinate.
ChildMax continues to ensure your salary and pays your take home salary while you’re on 12 months’ unpaid leave, caring for a sick child. It starts from £49.50 or for easy budgeting an initial payment of £8.25 followed by 11 monthly payments of £3.75.
Visit at www.insurewithmax.com or call the UK call centre 0333 323 0098 for more information.
Sources:
https://www.ft.com/content/9137fcc2-eef3-435a-a55e-0219112c940b?shareType=nongift
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-problems/tracing-and-finding-lost-pensions#:~:text=The%20Pension%20Tracing%20Service%20is,online%20directory%20for%20contact%20details.
https://www.pensionspolicyinstitute.org.uk/sponsor-research/research-reports/2022/2022-10-27-briefing-note-134-lost-pensions-2022-what-s-the-scale-and-impact/
Date: 13 February 2023 by Max Robinson