A woman, inspired by a tip from Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis, was able to recover £13,581 by tracking down a lost pension.
Jackie said she followed the financial journalist’s “advice” and managed to trace the thousands that accumulated from her Royal Mail pension, which she opened in the 80s.
Writing to Money Saving Expert’s weekly newsletter, Jackie said: “Thank you for your advice on tracing previous work pensions.
“I worked for Royal Mail between 1988 and 1991 and only contributed £596 in that time. I now have a transfer balance of £13,581. A big thank you to Martin & the team.” (sic)
The average person works 10 jobs in their lifetime and consequently, pension pots can accumulate.
According to Nest Pensions, there are as many as 2.8 million lost pensions in the UK at present with an average value of £9,500, which could provide a significant boost to a person’s income if entitled.
There are a number of ways people can track their old pots, one being through the Government’s Pensions Tracing Service.
The tool doesn’t disclose the value of a person’s pension, but it will provide details of schemes a person has opted into. People just need the name of their employer or pension provider to conduct the search.
People can also request contact details from the Pension Tracing Service by phone or by post.
Another way to trace a pension is through Gretel, a free online hub which reunites consumers with lost and dormant accounts.
To use Gretel, people just need to input their address and date of birth, after which it will conduct a free search.
People may even be eligible to claim a forgotten pot from a deceased relative. Duncan Stevens, from Gretel, said: “We estimate there is £78billion sitting in dormant accounts, with the biggest pot being in unclaimed pensions.
“Worryingly, a staggering amount of this – potentially as much as £15billion – belongs to people who are no longer with us.”
Jasmine Birtles, founder and director of Money Magpie, added: “One thing that we do know is that you can look for lost pensions of a deceased relative as well as your own.
“A huge amount of money could be claimed after the loss of a relative – money that they themselves didn’t know they had.”
However, Ms Birtles noted: “Third-party pensions can be a bit trickier to trace than just looking for your own ones, but if you’re willing to wait a bit you could get a surprise windfall after a few months.”
Martin Lewis is the Founder and Chair of MoneySavingExpert.com . To join the 13 million people who get his free Money Tips weekly email, go to www.moneysavingexpert.com/latesttip.
