Lost pensions

The end of October’s coming up – what are we getting excited about?? It’s National Pension Tracing day on 29th October!? Perhaps you aren’t festooning the house with lanterns to celebrate this, but losing a pension is scarier than anything that happens at Hallowe’en, and there could be a nice treat in store for some people.

According to recent estimates, there is ￡26.6 billion in “lost” pension pots, affecting nearly 3 million people, with an average value of ￡9,500.? Pots get lost mainly when people move house and forget to tell their pension provider.? Those boring annual reports stop coming – but who minds that?? It’s just one more piece of paper that you don’t have to file, unread, planning to deal with it when you have a bit more time.

Bizarrely, given the mesh of data that we all contribute to minute by minute, pension companies aren’t allowed to use National Insurance numbers to get details from the government of people’s last known contact addresses.? Most people with pension savings will be either working and paying tax, or drawing benefits, or taking a state pension – in other words, thoroughly within HMRC’s database.? Meaning that an enormous number of these lost pots could potentially be reunited with their owners just by using centrally held data.

That issue isn’t going to get solved any time soon, so what can you do to check up on any pensions, however small, that you might have lost track of over the years?

There’s a Government Pension Tracing Service https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details? It’s better than nothing, but it’s not brilliant.? You might expect to simply input your National Insurance number and find all the schemes you’ve ever been enrolled in, but – see above – that joined up thinking doesn’t exist.

However, you can input the names of previous employers, and also of pension companies that you remember making contributions to.? This won’t lead you directly to your pension, but will give you addresses of the current administrators of the schemes, and they, in their turn, should be able to at least set you on the path to better knowledge of your existing pensions.

If you do find you’ve got a few old pensions – or if you’ve known all along but never done anything with them – then give us a call.? We can check the charges and the investments for you, and, if appropriate, help you consolidate them into one scheme so that at least you know where everything is.

This article does not constitute advice, and no action or lack of action should be taken as a result of what is written.? You are strongly advised to consult your financial adviser before taking any action relating to the matters discussed in this article.?

A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until 55 (57 from April 2028). ?Your capital is at risk. ?The value of your investment (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested.