MARTIN Lewis has shared a simple check that anyone can make to get a cash boost from missing accounts.
The money saving expert returned to screens last night for his Martin Lewis Money Show.
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This week’s episode was a pensions special where Martin delved into all things retirement and pensions saving.
During the show Martin reminded people to use the pensions tracing service to track down lost pension pots from previous jobs.
One fan called Rob, 53, revealed how he watched the show last year and followed Martin’s tips and wanted to give them a go himself.
Rob called up the free government tracing service that Martin had mentioned and he said it was “such a simple process”.
He was given a log in to the website to keep track of his pension and was also told its value.
Rob was “gobsmacked” to find he had paid in £24,500 in his pot he started at age 21 and it’s now worth £97,000 and said it well beyond what he thought it would be.
But, he didn’t stop there – Rob then went back and found another pension he had taken up with another job in which he had contributed around £600-£700.
He found that that pension was now worth £24,000 – making the grand total of the pensions he traced to a whopping £121,000.
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Speaking live on the show Martin said Rob’s story reveals the benefits of starting pensions early and how compound interest works.
He also reiterated his advice for people to use the free government service.
Martin said: “If you want to have a check yourself just go to gov.uk pensions tracing service.
“It’s free, you don’t need to pay or you can call them up or you can write to it for pension info.
“You’ll need to know your employers’ or your pension providers name and it will tell you who to check your pension with.
“Then you contact the pension administrator directly.”
Millions of people are now enrolled in a pension automatically through their work.
Each time you start a new job you start a new pension, which can leave many Brits with several pots of cash that they can easily forget about.
Even before auto-enrolment, like Rob, if you were paying into a pension and moved jobs it could easily be forgotten.
Small amounts of just a couple of hundred pounds can still add up over time.
That’s because the money is invested and grows over time.
The Association of British Insurers estimates that there are around 1.6million missing pension pots, with an average size of £13,000.
In total, it says there is some £19.4billion sitting in accounts people have lost track of or misplaced.
Tracking down a pension needn’t be too difficult either.
How to track down your lost pension pot
First gather all the pensions documents you have – this could be paperwork or online documents or emails.
When you are first signed up to a pension you should get sent information about it.
Pension providers send annual statements usually by post, and that’s why it’s worth keeping your address up to date.
If you see any pension providers you don’t recognise, you can get in touch with them directly
Ask if they have more information about your pension and its value and they should be able to help.
If you don’t know who you have a pension with, it’s worth contacting old employers instead.
If they’re still in business, contact them to see if they can help you find out which pension provider administered your workplace scheme.
If you can’t get in touch with your old workplace, or your hunting for a private pension then it’s worth using the government’s free Pension Tracing Service.
This lets you search a database of hundreds of thousands of pension scheme contact details to find your provider.
You can search online by entering the name of your employer or old pension provider.
The service will tell you who managed your old company’s scheme and you will then need to contact them.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected]
