Pension Details Being Lost by Workers

A charity has revealed that people changing jobs are losing track of their clutch of their workplace pension pots, which then naturally makes retirement planning more difficult. Age UK said that nearly a quarter of those who were asked in a survey were not aware of the state of at least one scheme. Around 25 per cent of the under-35s have already worked for about five employers, a similar proportion to those aged 65 now. A free service is currently provided by the government to trace people’s lost pensions.

The survey asked 2,300 people about the details and whereabouts of their pension pots. Around one out of every five of those who said that their pension details were missing blamed having lost the paperwork. The charity said that the issue was beginning to create a “black hole” regarding pensions.

The problem may be on the increase as under a new government regime more and more workers are being enrolled into a workplace pension scheme automatically. About 10 million extra people could be signed up to an occupational pension with every new job due to this.

Thanks to this, the government is planning to make it easier for workers to take any small pension pot with them and merge it with their next workplace. The Department of Work and Pensions has now begun to run a pension tracing service that is able to locate lost pensions for you. It will then send details of the scheme provider’s address to allow the employee to gather more information.

When workers change jobs regularly it can mean that they frequently accumulate a number of small pension pots which they need to account for in preparation for retirement.