A study by Aegon found 64% of people have multiple pensions and within this group, 22% have misplaced one or all of their pots.

Although this is only a slight increase from the 21% reported last year, it means more than seven million people may have lost track of some of the savings.

Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, said: “Nowadays the vast majority of jobs come with a pension and as people frequently change jobs it’s all too easy to lose track of your pensions, especially if they are small.”

On average, people have 11 different jobs over their lifetime, and may have a pension from each of them. Estimates suggest that as much as £400m may be sitting in unclaimed pensions.

Smith added: “The launch of the pension dashboard in 2019 should simplify the process of finding lost pensions and has the additional bonus of seeing all your pensions, including the State Pension, in one place.

“It should also make it simpler to consolidate in future, but people don’t have to wait until then to get their pensions in order. The Department of Work and Pensions pension tracing service can already help find lost or forgotten pensions they built up many years ago.”

What you can do now to get your pensions in order:

1. Use the DWP Pensions tracing service to find your pension by entering your old employer’s name which will generate the current contact address. Simply write to this address, with your current and any previous name, current and previous addresses and your National Insurance number. Go to: gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details
2. Some pension schemes won’t have been updated for some time. To get the contact details you will need to fill out an online form with your name, email address and any information you believe is relevant such as the dates you were at the company and your national insurance number.
3. Get a State pension forecast, either in paper format or online gov.uk/check-state-pension
4. And once you’ve tracked down your pensions, get advice before consolidating them to make sure you don’t lose out on any valuable benefits.