The Government’s free Pension Tracing Service provides contact details for pension schemes. Savers should be cautious about commercial services that charge fees or promote additional products.
If a provider has been taken over, they may need to establish which organisation now manages the pension.
Before combining any recovered pots, savers should check for valuable benefits or guarantees that could be lost on transfer. Consolidation may reduce fees and paperwork, but it will not suit everyone.
The PPI research also revealed a gender gap in lost pension wealth. Women’s average lost pot stands at £5,370, more than 20 per cent lower than the £6,830 average for men.
For the first time, the survey examined defined benefit pensions. Although the data was not sufficient to produce reliable market-wide estimates, the evidence indicated that lost defined benefit entitlements exist across scheme types and could be valuable enough to affect retirement outcomes.
Emma Furlonger, managing director for workplace pensions at Standard Life, said it was “deeply concerning that so much money put aside for retirement can become disconnected from the people it belongs to.”