Figures from a study conducted by Hargreaves Lansdown, the DIY pension provider, suggest that 21% have definitely lost track of a pension, while a further 18% are not sure if they have.
Those who do not know where their pensions might be are urged to take steps to track them down as soon as possible to ensure that the money is working as hard as it can and is available for retirement.
Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “If you’ve worked for a few different companies during your career, then the chances are you have lost track of a pension.
“You’ve paid into it for a while but then moved jobs, and as time has gone on, you haven’t kept your contact details up to date. Before you know it, you’ve stopped getting statements without even realising. It’s easily done, but it can have a major impact on your retirement planning.”
Finding lost pensions
If you think you might have lost a pension, there are steps you can take to recover it. The easiest way is to write to the trustees at your former employer. If you don’t know who they are, you can use the Pension Tracing Service at www.gov.uk to get the contact details of former employers’ pension schemes, and can then get in touch to find out where your money is. You can also join Gretel, which searches for pensions automatically and puts you back in touch with the provider.
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Consolidating if necessary
In some cases, it may make sense to put all of your pensions together, reducing charges and making it easier to see how they are performing. However, before you transfer a pension, it is important to ensure you understand the implications and are not opting out of valuable guarantees on existing pension schemes.
If you have a final salary pension or other defined benefit scheme, Morrissey says it “rarely makes sense” to transfer it.
“Other older pension plans also contain valuable benefits such as guaranteed annuity rates that you would lose by consolidating – it’s always a good idea to check for these things before taking the decision to consolidate,” she added.
