Join in the Great Pension Treasure hunt on 30 October 2022 to find lost pension pots worth billions

 Punter Southall Aspire has announced the second ‘National Pension Tracing Day’ will take place on Sunday 30 October 2022.

The company will urge people across the UK to use the extra hour when the clocks go back to join in a ‘Great Pension Treasure Hunt’ and track down any lost or forgotten pensions, which are estimated to be worth an estimated £19.4 billion pounds.

National Pension Tracing Day was founded by Punter Southall Aspire who has announced that last year’s sponsors – Aegon, Legal & General, Scottish Widows and Standard Life – continue to sponsor the initiative. In addition, Aviva, Smart Pension and Hargreaves Lansdown have agreed to support the campaign.

Last year’s successful campaign resulted in over 5,000 people visiting the National Pension Tracing Day website and there were eight million mentions of the campaign on Google.

With the UK facing the worst cost of living crisis for decades, there has never been a greater need for people to track down lost pension pots. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA)[i] this year stated that one in five people aged over 55 are concerned that they wouldn’t have enough to live off in retirement.

The scale of lost pension pots is significant and could offer a boost for those nearing retirement. Research commissioned by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and carried out by the Pensions Policy Institute has estimated that there could be around 1.6 million pension pots worth £19.4 billion, the equivalent of nearly £13,000 per pension pot which have been lost or forgotten about[ii].

The Department for Work and Pensions estimates there could be as many as 50 million lost pension pots by 2050[iii]. Pensions get lost or forgotten for many reasons. On average people change jobs 11 times over their lifetime and move house eight times, but often forget to tell the pension provider they’ve moved.

Alan Morahan, Chief Commercial Officer, Punter Southall Aspire said, “We’re delighted to be launching our second National Pension Tracing Day. Over the past year we’ve heard of many success stories from people tracking down lost pension pots. This money could make the world of difference to these people, perhaps transforming retirement for some.”

Johanna Nelson, Director of Communications at Punter Southall Aspire added, “People work hard to build up their pension pots but can lose track of pensions especially if they have moved jobs quite a lot. But it’s often quite simple to track down old pensions, so a little bit of effort now could be worth thousands in the future.”

Punter Southall Aspire has an online resource centre that offers guidance, simple steps, and support to enable people to trace their pensions easily. For more information visit: www.nationalpensiontracingday.co.uk.

* National Pension Tracing Day won the best thought-leadership award at this year’s Pensions Age Awards. By early November 2021 almost 5,500 new users had visited the National Pension Tracing Day web site, plus extensive press coverage reached more than 2 million people, and over 500 employer / Trustee communication tool kits were downloaded from the web site.

 About Punter Southall Aspire

For more information visit: www.puntersouthall.com/aspire

Punter Southall Aspire consults on employee benefits for companies. Its financial planning arm has been awarded Chartered status and works with private clients.

Which means we work with employers, trustees and people across our UK offices to design and manage solutions to meet their unique needs.

Punter Southall Aspire is part of Punter Southall, which is proudly independent and majority employee owned.