With 21% of working Londoners losing track of pensions and 12% not even being able to locate the relevant paperwork, accountants are urging individuals to make a resolution in 2016 to find their missing funds.1 According to London chartered accountants, Perrys there are an estimated 1.3 million people in London who have lost pensions and a further 750,000 who have misplaced their paperwork.
The average pension pot is currently worth around £43,000 at retirement. Jane Collins from Putney is one such individual who was unaware that she held a pension from a previous employment. “I had changed jobs a few times and had completely forgotten I had been contributing to a company pension previously – it wasn’t even something that crossed my mind when I handed in my notice and left the company. “It was only years later when I was moving home that I discovered the original paperwork.” Stewart Pope, CEO at Perrys Chartered Accountants in Central London, said: “Tracing a lost pension certainly isn’t a lost cause.
There are a number of things an individual can do in order to find out if they have a pension. “If they believe their pension was through the NHS, Civil Service, teaching or armed forces then they should contact the pension provider directly. Alternatively they can trace a pension using the Department for Works & Pensions’ free online pension tracing facility.
They will need to know which employer they believe they held a pension with along with employment dates.” The free Pension Tracing Service can be found at www.gov.uk/find-a-lost-pension