Alarming £19bn left unclaimed in UK pension pots

Have you kept track of where all your pensions are and notified your pension providers when you have moved house or your circumstances have changed?

Have you received annual statements and information packs from your providers – if not they may well not know how to contact you.

Official figures suggest that, in today’s modern world, people change job roughly 11 times and move house 8 times in their life and whilst 89% automatically think of telling their GP or dentist about their change of address, only one in 25 think about telling their pension provider.

Over time, and as people change jobs, often small pension pots get forgotten about and with house moves thrown into the mix, product providers often lose touch with their policyholders.

Additionally some pension policy holders may lose track of their providers as the provider, for whatever reason, has changed their name multiple times and the policyholder can’t work out who to contact.

A survey of 2000 UK adults, conducted by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimated that there are around 1.6 million pension pots worth £19.4bn left unclaimed – could you be one of them?

Pension Tracing Service

Never fear though, if you think that you may have pension pots that you have lost track of, there is a solution.

The department of work and pensions has set up a pension tracing service and you can find out more here on the money advice service website.

Finally, it is also important to remember that when your relationship status changes or your family grows, you should update your ‘expression of wish’ with your pension provider so that if anything happens to you, your money gets left to those you would wish it to.

As always, if you need our help or guidance, please do not hesitate to contact us by telephoning us or clicking here to request a call back.

Written by Kay Crooke – Associate Practice Director at Prosser Knowles Associates Limited