Less than one in five young workers know exactly where all their pension pots are, new research reveals.
Those aged 18 to 34 will be at increased risk of losing more of their retirement funds as they are likely to accumulate more pension pots over the years, according to pension finding platform Raindrop.
It found three in ten young people have already had at least three jobs. Some 17 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds plan to move jobs every few years compared to just two per cent of workers over 55.
Vivan Shridharani, co-founder of Raindrop, says: ‘Millions of young savers risk losing track of pension savings as they increasingly switch roles every few years and start paying into new pots. The traditional career path of a company for life and just one pension is virtually extinct, so the number of lost pension pots is accelerating partly due to more flexible and diverse career choices.’
Around £31 billion is estimated to be sitting in lost pension pots, with an average £9,500 in each of the 3.3 million missing pensions, according to the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI). To find a lost pension, first list all the places you have worked and find out which pension providers they used.
You can do this by contacting your previous employers or checking old paperwork.
Then contact the pension provider so it can locate your pension. You’ll need your National Insurance number, previous names and addresses (if they have changed), and the details of when you worked for the company.
You can find contact details for pension schemes via the Government’s website Pension Tracing Service. See gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details.
Always keep your details updated because moving home or changing name – and failing to let pension providers know – are the most common ways people lose track of their funds.
In addition, pension providers are under no obligation to issue annual statements when a pot has less than £5,000.
This means that young people who change jobs often may not have accumulated enough to be sent statements.
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