Thousands more make contact with long lost funds
8 May 2014 01:03 PM
More and more people have been making contact
with their lost pension funds using the government’s free Pension Tracing
Service.
Latest figures show that in the past year alone almost
145,000 people have used the service to locate those long forgotten pensions.
This is more than double the number who used the service in 2010, with numbers
rising year on year.
By
2018 all employers will have to provide a workplace pension and with the
average person having 11 jobs in their lifetime this could lead to 50 million
dormant and lost pension pots by 2050.
The
government announced last year that it was introducing a system whereby if you
move job your pension pot moves too. The ‘pot follows member’
system will mean that any pots of less than £10,000 will automatically
move with them.
Minister for Pensions Steve Webb said:
With the new flexibilities announced at the Budget it is
now even more important that people can access all of their pension saving.
People who have already lost touch with a pension can use our free tracing
service to track down their fund and many more are.
Soon it will be the norm that when you move job your
small pension pot moves with you. This will reduce the costs of providing
pensions and help people to plan for their future.
The
Pension Tracing Service helps individuals to find occupational and personal
pensions that they have lost track of. It uses a database containing
information on more than 200,000 pension schemes. The free service provides
contact details of the potential scheme administrator to enable customers to
make subsequent enquiries.
To
find out if the Pension Tracing Service could help you:
Pension Tracing Service contacts and
traces
In
the financial year 2013 to 2014, 144,169 contacts were made online or by phone
with 126,904 successful traces.
In
the financial year 2012 to 2013, 107,335 people made contact, with 94,354
successful traces.
In
the financial year 2011 to 2012, 77,757 people made contact, with 67,068
successful traces.
In
the financial year 2010 to 2011, 76,453 people made contact, with 66,586
successful traces.
Contact press office
Media enquiries for this press release – 0203 267
5120
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