One man has boosted his savings by £26,000 after discovering six lost pension pots.
Around 3.3 million pension pots – worth a collective £31billion – are considered to be “lost”, according to analysis by the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) charity, published in October last year. This is up from £26.6billion in 2022 across 2.8 million accounts and almost double the number from 2018.
The PPI defines a pension as “lost” when the provider is unable to contact the saver who owns it. The spike has been blamed on workplace pension auto-enrolment. As workplaces enrol workers over the age of 22 into a workplace pension, those who move jobs frequently could end up with multiple pots they may not fully be aware of.
This was the case for Lee, from Essex, who recently discovered six lost pension pots totalling £26,000 overall. The 39-year-old told The Mirror he had worked “numerous” different jobs throughout his twenties across a range of different industries and sectors – including insurance, hospitality, and sales.
He said: “I think a lot of people hesitate to move jobs, and it doesn’t look good on your CV if you’re job hopping too much. But for me, one job led to another opportunity, then the experience of that job provided me the skills for another opportunity, and I’ve always been open to taking them.”
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Lee says the birth of his son was the “trigger point” that made him start to look into his pensions. He said: “I had something like six or seven jobs over five years, so I knew there were some there. I just didn’t know everything else, so the actual important bits. I knew I had them, but it was never a thought to check them. It’s also quite daunting for a lot of people, and especially people like myself, when you’ve got more than the one pension, it becomes a bit of a task that you do put off.”
The father-of-one chose to use the app Penny after seeing it advertised on social media. Penny helps people find their lost savings pots and offers plans and pension investment options that can be managed through its app. The service charges a 0.58% fee per year on the value of the pension, which is called the Annual Management Charge (AMC).
You’ll also be charged the fund provider fee, which varies based on the fund you select, and you can see these within the Penny app. The group offers a range of funds managed by either HSBC or Vanguard, two of the world’s largest fund managers.
You can track down lost pension pots yourself for free by contacting ex-employers and digging out old paperwork. The Government also has a free Pension Tracing Service tool. This service allows you to enter the name of an employer, so you can find the contact details of the pension provider they use.
Lee had some of the details of one of his lost pots but didn’t know how to access it or how much was in it. So he gave this to Penny when he signed up, and of course, this was the first to be found. When the notification came through, Lee was surprised to discover the pot contained a whopping £8,000.
Within that first week, Penny managed to locate a number of different pots for Lee, each containing a vast range of different amounts. The smallest pot Lee found contained just £2.50, while others had £5,000 in them. Lee added: “I honestly didn’t expect to get anything from that job. I was there for such a short period of them, I didn’t think they would set me up a pension, but they did, and there it is.”
“I’ve never really thought about my pensions or retirement in any level of detail, I have never had an idea of a concrete plan, or even just a loose plan. But it felt good to see the money in front of me, and itll be there for me and my family.”
Lee says the money has given him a “bit more comfort” as he has watched his own family members worry about the costs of their retirement, adding: “The more I work and the older I get, ill just keep adding to it, so it’s reassuring that it’s there as a starting point.” Lee has now combined all his pensions into one pot. Always seek free pension advice on whether pension consolidating is right for you.
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