The Pension Tracing Service, which helps people find lost cash, will undergo a major expansion, the government has announced.
The Newcastle-based body will triple its staff numbers, taking the total headcount to 49 ahead of April’s pension freedoms.
Last year the service was contacted a record 145,000 times, and in 87 per cent of cases staff successfully managed to put customers back in touch with their lost pension provider.
Pensions minister Steve Webb said: “With people having an average of 11 different jobs during the course of their working lives, it can be very easy to lose track of pensions they may have built up with previous employers.
“If you contributed to a pension in a previous job and don’t have the details any more, it would be worth contacting our free PTS to see how you can be reunited with your lost pension pot.
“Whilst we have plans to help people combine their pension pots in future when they change jobs, there are still too many scattered and lost pensions, and we are working hard to make sure people get what they are entitled to.”
Jill Scott, operational manager at the Pension Tracing Service, said: “Every day we take a huge amount of satisfaction through the work that we do in helping hundreds of people to track down money that is rightfully theirs.
“Helping people to find their hard-earned money means they can look forward to retirement in a much better position.
“While it may sound strange, losing track of a pension is easily done, as people tend to move around the jobs market far more frequently than might have been the case in the past.”
From October 2016 Mr Webb plans to roll out a ‘pot follows member’ plan, which will mean pension providers would use a register to find a customer’s other pots, before contacting them to ask if they want them unified.
This is expected to be rolled out over 18 months on an opt-in basis.
The government estimates there could be as many as 50m dormant and lost pension pots by 2050.
Information:
www.gov.uk/find-lost-pension
Telephone: 0845 6002 537
Adviser view
Mike Smith, of Yorkshire-based MS Financial Services, said: “I do not think there are any more dormant pots than there were before but people are talking about it now.
“Anything that gets people more aware has got to be a good thing.”
