The Government is promoting the service to counter the growing tide of dormant pots, which are expected to increase in number as a result of auto-enrolment and typical working life employment patterns averaging 11 jobs per person. The DWP predicts there could be 50 million dormant and lost pension pots by 2050 without the introduction of its ‘pot follows member’ plan that will see pots of less than £10,000 move with employees when they change jobs.
Pensions minister Steve Webb says: “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.”
