MoneySavingExpert.com founder, Martin Lewis, has implored savvy savers to double-check their forgotten pension pots, after one man uncovered a lost sum of £121,000.
It’s so easy to lose track of your pension pots. Job jumping and climbing the career ladder can see you opening multiple pension accounts with different companies — and Lewis doesn’t want you to forget about them.
Lewis appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to chat about the Pension Tracing Service — a way to find out whether you’re missing out on your savings.
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According to Lewis, you can use the Pension Tracing Service to 'find out who your old pension was with and get in touch with them.'
He also said that he was highlighting the programme because recently, a man got in touch with him after discovering a huge retirement sum in forgotten pension posts.
“A chap called Rob got in touch with me to tell me that I’d mentioned something called the Pension Tracing Service,” he told listeners.
“So after Rob had seen me talk about it… it triggered a memory for him.
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“He remembered signing up for a long-forgotten pension in his first job over 30 years before.”
He then went on to say that the Pension Tracing Service had helped Rob locate the pot from his old firm. And it turns out it had a wad of cash just waiting for him.
“The tracing service helped him locate it from his old firm, and he found he had put £24,500 into that pension when he was younger- because he was part of a company pension.
“That £24,500 was now worth £97,000.”
Apparently, Rob then told Lewis that he’d checked boxes featuring old payslips and found a different pension from the 1990s.
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“So he found £121,000 worth of pension,” Lewis told his radio listeners. “This is my rather exaggerated way of saying it’s worth a check.”
The Pension Tracing Service programme is free to use. It won’t tell you whether you have a pension or how much is saved up.
However, it does let you search by employer and find a pension scheme that links to them.
So, if you’ve had a few previous jobs and you have an inkling that there are some unclaimed pensions in your name, it’s worth testing out the tool.
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However, the Pension Tracing Service can only help you find private and workplace pensions opened in your name. You can’t use the programme to find info on state pensions.
“We want people to have a decent retirement, and if you’ve saved for it and you’re not accessing it, that’s a hair-pulling-out moment. Do check for your lost pensions.
“Go through your old payslips. No promises, nothing’s perfect, and I’m not saying it’ll be easy, I'm saying it’s worth a check.”
The Pension Tracing Service project aims to put savers 'back in control' of their retirement funds.
Topics: Martin Lewis, Money, Hacks
Ella Scott