More than four in five workers don’t know where all their pension pots are, pension-finding firm Raindrop reports.
This comes after it was revealed recently that an estimated £31.1 billion is sitting in missing pension pots, according to the Pension Policy Institute.
Locating their missing retirement nest eggs could be a much needed boost for the 19 per cent of workers who are concerned they do not have enough money to retire, Raindrop says.
The Pension and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) says a single person needs £43,100 a year for a comfortable retirement while a moderate retirement – which factors in replacing a car every seven years and a fortnight abroad – costs £31,300 a year.
In terms of your total pot, that means it should be £490,000 for a moderate retirement and £790,000 for a comfortable one. That assumes you want to turn your pension into an annuity for a guaranteed annual income.
The growing cost of retirement will force many to work longer with seven million saying they will need to delay their retirement plans due to low funds.
Search: Locating their missing retirement nest eggs could be a much needed boost for the 19 per cent of workers who are concerned they do not have enough money to retire
Vivan Shridharani, co-founder of Raindrop, says: ‘Millions of savers have lost pension pots which is putting their retirements at risk.
‘Locating all previous pension pots should be the first step savers take to boost their retirement incomes and maximise the value of the pots they’ve already built up.’
To find a lost pension, first list all of 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 way people lose track of their funds.
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