Simon Prest was stunned to discover he had more than £100,000 sitting in forgotten pension pots – including one sum of £86,000.
The 54-year-old, from North Yorkshire, had lost track of the five pensions he had saved into after changing employers several times throughout his career.
Simon, who works as a senior land manager for Gleeson Homes, estimates the discovery means he had previously underestimated his total retirement savings by around £150,000 – the £100,000 discovered plus £50,000 he predicts he will save in the next few years.
Speaking to The i Paper, he said: “I found over £100,000. Due to the nature of my job, I have changed companies a few times since I started my career in the mid-1990s, so I have a few pensions.”
His experience highlights how easily pension savings can slip through the cracks when people change jobs or move house – and why tracking down old pots could make a significant difference to retirement finances.
Last week, the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) revealed that more than three million UK pension pots, with an average value of about £6,000, are estimated to be lost.
Around 2.5 million lost pots are thought to belong to people under 55, according to the research, supported by the government-backed Money and Pensions Service (MAPS).
Women’s lost pots are worth less than those held by men, at around £5,370, compared with £6,830.
Simon found a much larger sum. He said: “I had no idea the money existed. They had been lost for a couple of decades. The smallest pension I found was worth £10,000, while the largest was the £86,000.”
The £86,000 was with a firm he thought he had being paying monthly for life insurance, not realising it was actually going to a pension pot.
He discovered the money after deciding to get his finances in order. He did so with the help of Penny, a pension-finding service, which helped identify pots linked to previous employers and his National Insurance (NI) number.
Having moved house several times, he was also advised to contact providers to ensure his personal details were up to date.
Simon, from Skipton, said: “If that hadn’t happened, I’d have been none the wiser and just expected the lesser pot at retirement.”
He has not yet established whether consolidating the pensions would reduce fees or change the amount he could expect to receive in retirement.
Changing employers is a common reason why people end up with multiple pension pots. Workplace pensions are often opened automatically when someone starts a new job, but it can be easy to lose track of them after moving on, particularly if correspondence goes to an old address.
Simon believes people should not assume they have no forgotten savings simply because they cannot remember leaving a pension behind.
He said: “It’s certainly worth a look whether you do or don’t. You may find something from a job you did in your twenties.
“A friend of mine found one from a job she did just after university. She wasn’t there for that long but now she’s in her fifties – the pot is about £15,000.”
Researchers at PPI said that with National Pensions Tracing Day on 25 October, it highlights the continued scale of the lost pensions challenge.
Oliver Morley, chief executive of the MAPS, said: “With around 2.5 million lost pensions belonging to people aged under 55, there is a need to ensure no one is missing savings for the retirement they want.”
Tom Selby, public policy director at AJ Bell, added: “While the average pot value may not sound life-changing on its own, £6,000 can make a significant difference to someone’s retirement income.
“That figure rises to £10,000 among those aged over 55 – people who will likely be thinking about retirement in the not-too-distant future – and that is just an average, meaning many will hold much larger forgotten sums.”
How to find a lost pension
Anyone who thinks they may have lost track of an old workplace pension can start by contacting previous employers or using the government free Pension Tracing Service to find the contact details of pension schemes.
Having a NI number, details of previous employers and approximate dates of employment can help with the search. If a provider is identified, savers can contact it directly to establish whether they have a pension and check that their contact details are correct.
Finding an old pension does not necessarily mean it should be transferred into a single pot. Before consolidating, it is important to check for exit fees, difference in charges and any valuable benefits that could be lost by transferring.