New research highlights the scale of lost pension accounts, with more than 3m 'lost' pots containing £18.7bn. On average, each account is worth £6,220.

The paper by the Pensions Policy Institute comes as Pension Tracing Day is approaching on 25 October, and ahead of the government's MoneyHelper pensions dashboard launching to the public, although the dashboard will only show pension accounts that have not been accessed.

“As the PPI’s new figures show, lost pension pots remain a significant issue for savers, providers, and policymakers," said PPI deputy director Suzy Morrissey. 

'Lost pensions: the scale of the challenge' puts £18.7bn of lost pension savings as the lower-bound estimate. In 2024, the PPI estimated lost pots to be worth about £31.1bn and the average size of a lost pot at £9,470.
 

   

Oliver Morley, chief executive of the Money and Pensions Service, said there is a need to ensure no-one is missing savings for the retirement they want, given 2.5m under-55s have lost pensions worth about £12.9bn. 

"The MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard being developed by MaPS, expected to launch in financial year 2027/28, will help tackle this problem. As well as a single overview of pensions in one place, a dashboard will show pensions that people may have lost touch with," he said. “While this is only part of the important work to ensure people have the retirement savings they need, it is a vital part of making planning for later life easier." 

While just 8,000 lost pension pots belong to the over-75s, the PPI notes that 13% of all accounts linked to over 75-year-olds are considered lost, the highest proportion for any age group.

"This suggests that pots remaining uncrystallised after retirement age may be more likely to be genuinely lost," the PPI said. 

Over-75s have lost £3,340 on average. Those aged 55 to 75 have the highest average value lost pots at £10,710.

 

Who is most affected by the small pots issue had been unclear until last year, when the Institute for Fiscal Studies looked at data about job changes over a period of time which found lower earners and women are more likely to have small pots. More than half of all pots held by the lowest-earning third were between £1,000 and £4,999, meaning they would not be automatically merged under a future regime.

For the first time, the PPI's lost pensions survey included exploratory evidence on defined benefit. Although it cuations that market estimates are difficult to make, it says the evidence suggests that lost DB entitlements exist across scheme types and may be valuable enough to affect member outcomes.

The fact that deferred pots continue to proliferate 14 years since the start of auto-enrolment and there is still a mountain of lost pensions money was highlighted by public policy director Tom Selby from investment firm AJ Bell. 

“Policymakers haven’t found any real answers to the challenge of lost pension pots, with pension dashboards languishing on the political to-do list for what feels like eons and proposals like ‘pot follows member’ never making meaningful headway," he said.

As for the planned introduction of automatic consolidation of the smallest pots, worth less than £1,000, Selby argued that this will not solve the current issue. 

"While the average pot value may not sound life-changing on its own, £6,000 can make a significant difference to someone's retirement income. That figure rises to £10,000 among those aged over 55 – people who will likely be thinking about retirement in the not-too-distant future – and that is just an average, meaning many will hold much larger forgotten sums," he pointed out.