Martin Lewis warns millions could have lost pensions worth £10,000 on average

Martin Lewis has urged anyone who has changed jobs or moved home to check whether they could be missing out on forgotten pension savings worth thousands of pounds.

Speaking on this week’s The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV, the MoneySavingExpert founder warned that more than £30billion in pension savings is believed to be lost across the UK, with the average missing pot worth just under £10,000.

“There’s over £30billion, 30,000 million pounds of pensions, are thought to be lost.

"An average of just under £10,000 each,” Mr Lewis said.

He directed the warning particularly at people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who may have worked for several employers over the years, noting that workers who changed jobs multiple times are among those most likely to have unclaimed pension pots.

Many pensions become lost because providers lose contact with customers after they move house without updating their details.

Changing surname after marriage can also make it harder for firms to reconnect savers with old accounts.

Mr Lewis said many people simply forget about smaller workplace pensions over time.

“You might have changed jobs and forgotten it. It’s so common,” he said.

He also warned that pension providers themselves may have merged or rebranded, making older schemes more difficult to trace.

Mr Lewis advised people to start by checking any old paperwork or employment documents they still have, and to contact former employers directly for details of historic schemes.

If records cannot be found, he recommended using the Government’s Pension Tracing Service on GOV.UK, which contains information on around 200,000 schemes.

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“It contains 200,000 pension schemes… Who’s taken on its assets? Where’s it gone? They’ll be able to find that for you,” he said.

Once a provider is identified, savers can contact the company directly to reconnect with the account, though ID documents may be required.

For those still unable to locate missing pensions, Mr Lewis highlighted the free tracing service Gretel, which performs a soft search using credit‑file information to match previous addresses with disconnected financial products.

The service is funded by firms required to help reunite customers with lost assets.

Users who register are automatically rechecked every fortnight for newly identified accounts.

Mr Lewis said some viewers had uncovered substantial sums, including one who found £45,000 in forgotten savings and another who discovered more than £100,000 sitting unclaimed.