Have you lost contact with £9,500?

With the number of lost pots on the rise, now is the time to pay your forgotten pension pot some attention.

My personal financial admin is often a Sunday task that is almost always deferred for other mundane tasks, such as laundry or bathroom cleaning, and i work in finance.

this financial procrastination, or unawareness, is evidenced by the new lost pots figures published by Pensions Policy institute.

the value of lost pension pots now stands at £26.6bn. What’s even worse is the increase in the number of lost pots, which is nearly 75% higher than in 2018.

• Who are losing their pots? Primarily those under 55, which accounts for 65% of the total number of pots lost, but over half a million are still lost in the crucial pre-retirement period of 55-65.

• Why are pots being lost? Contact is typically lost because people move home and do not tell their provider they’ve moved. People have moved jobs and home more frequently since 2018, which has predominantly led to this increase. recent research found that only 4% of people instinctively think to contact their pension provider about a change in address; in comparison 66% tell their bank.

• How much are they losing contact with? you would assume that a lost pot would be a smaller one, because surely any materially-sized pot would have been, if not cherished, at least tracked by their owner. but these pots are not insubstantial. the average size pot which is lost amongst the 55–75-year-old range, is £16,004. the average across all ages, is £9,474. if you worked in the uK and now reside here in Spain, there is every possibility that your money is waiting for you to make a claim. i urge you to think about your past jobs and contact us to see if your retirement could be made that much more comfortable.

Call us on 965 704 338 to arrange a free noobligation chat, or just pop into our benijofar office, next to the Citroen garage on the main street.