‘I found £17,000 in lost savings after changing job – others are in same position’

There are now an estimated 3.3 million lost pensions containing £31.1billion worth of assets in the UK, according to research from the Pensions Policy Institute

A man is encouraging others to track down their lost pensions after he found £17,000 in missing savings. Ross, 31, lost track of his retirement pots after changing jobs – and he isn’t the only one.

There are now an estimated 3.3 million lost pensions containing £31.1billion worth of assets in the UK, according to research from the Pensions Policy Institute. As well as changing jobs, pensions can also become lost if you moved house, or if your pension provider has rebranded or merged with another company.

Ross, who lives in London, discovered three missing pension pots – two with Aviva and one with Scottish Widows – worth a combined £17,000. The total amount will be much higher by the time he retires as interest will continue to accrue. Ross said: “I’d moved jobs a couple of times over a five to six year period, and noticed that each employer was using different pension provider.

“It then also struck me that I had little to no visibility as to what I’d deposited into each of pension pots over the years. So the decision to track down pensions was all about financial transparency really. It was definitely more than I expected [to find] which was great!”

Ross used pension-finding platform Raindrop to help track down his lost retirement pots. Raindrop does not charge you to find your pensions, but individual providers may charges you if go on to transfer or consolidate your pensions. Since its launch in 2020, Raindrop has located over £460million in lost pension savings across over 40,000 pots.

Ross said: “It was really straightforward and the communications from the team at Raindrop was super clear. After signing up, I gave a handful of details via email. I think I was then given an ETA of a few weeks for the team at Raindrop to find the pension pots. I opted to consolidate all of the existing pots into one.”

There is also a free Government Pension Tracing Service tool, which has a database of more than 200,000 workplace and personal pension schemes. The Pension Tracing Service will only tell you the contact details of a provider – not the amount you could have in a pension.

You’ll need to contact the pension administrator yourself to find out if you have any funds with them. Alternatively, you can contact your employer and they should be able to provide you with the right details. For advice on what you should do with your pension pots, there is Pension Wise which is a Government service that offers free retirement guidance.

New research has revealed that eight in ten (81%) adults are unsure where all their pension pots are, while a fifth (19%) are worried they don’t have enough saved for retirement. Meanwhile, three-quarters (73%) of people with multiple pensions have not consolidated them, and roughly a third (32%) are unsure how to do so.

Vivan Shridharani, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Raindrop, said: “This is just the tip of the iceberg – millions of UK savers have lost track of pension pots and need support taking control of their retirement savings. There are billions still sitting in lost pots waiting to be reunited with savers to enable them to plan for a better financial future.”

Always seek free advice before making any big decisions about your pension.