Insurance association will work with UK government to ensure people ‘are reconnected’ with assets

Many Brits are not contacting their pension provider when they move house.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) surveyed 2,000 UK adults and estimated that there are around 1.6 million pension pots worth £19.4bn ($24.2bn, €22.5bn) unclaimed.

This is the equivalent of nearly £13,000 per pension pot.

The survey comes several years after the government predicted that there could be as many as 50 million dormant and lost pensions by 2050, as it set in motion plans for the long-awaited pensions dashboard.

Simple steps

Dr Yvonne Braun, director of policy, long-term savings and protection at the ABI, said: “During the lockdown many of us have been focussing on those jobs that never get done, so now is the perfect opportunity to check all your financial information is up to date with the correct address.

“It is simple to do. All you need is to check the address on your last annual statement or log in to your provider’s website.

“Don’t worry if you don’t have this information, we have a guide on our website to help track your insurance and pension policies and some tips on responding to tracing letters, along with our members’ contact details.

“Long-term savings providers will continue to work hard to reunite people with their lost money. People deserve all the cash they are entitled to.

“To ensure more people than ever are reconnected, we will continue to work with government to explore ways data can be used to verify customer addresses.”

Automatic response

The research also said that people usually move house around eight times in their life.

As part of the study, people were asked about their ‘to-do’ lists when they move and things they would do automatically and things they would do when prompted.

The majority (89%) automatically think about telling their GP or dentist about their change of address.

But, only one-in-25 “instinctively” think about telling their pensions provider about their new address, while just half of people think contacting their pension provider is a high priority when prompted.

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