I found £23,000 forgotten cash that was sitting in a lost account – it was so easy and quick to do

Many of us dream about stumbling upon a small fortune but for one dad, these hopes turned into reality this year when he was reunited with three pension pots worth thousands of pounds that he’d forgotten about.

Ben Russell, 31, lives in Harrogate with his two daughters, aged four and two, and had a niggling feeling he had retirement savings somewhere that he’d lost track of.

However, he had no idea he’d find three different pots of cash, totalling a huge £23,000.

Ben currently works in car finance, specialising in high-end vehicles worth above £100,000.

Over the course of his career, the dad has had three main jobs  and has switched pensions each time he moved to a new role.

He started paying into his first pension aged 22 and has been diligent about making contributions throughout his working life.

“When I was in each of those workplaces, I was clued up on the pension provider and how much I was paying in,” he said.

“But when you leave a job, you quickly forget. I also failed to keep on top of communications from the providers in question.”

Earlier this year, the hard-working dad started thinking that he needed to get more of a handle on his finances – and wanted to check exactly how much he had in savings for retirement.

“It was on my mind that I should track down those old pots as I didn’t really know how much I had slotted away,” said Ben.

“It was around that time that I saw an advert for Penny on Instagram and decided to give it a try.”

Penny is an app which traces old pensions on behalf of savers – and helps them to consolidate their pots.

“When I found out a bit more, it really resonated with me,” said Ben.

“I’m very aware of having two young kids that I need to plan for. I also know I need to think ahead to the time when I’m no longer working. I want to be sure I’m on top of everything financially.”

The app proved to be a bit of a game-changer for Ben.

He said: “I downloaded the app and found it was really easy to use.”

Savers need to input their personal details, National Insurance number, previous addresses and the companies they’ve worked for. Penny will then do the detective work and find missing pots.

“There was nothing too taxing in terms of information I had to provide,” said Ben.

REUNITED WITH CASH

In a matter of weeks, Ben discovered he had three different pension pots dating back to 2015.

This included two pots with Royal London and one with Now: Pensions. In total, he was reunited with £23,000.

According to Ben, you’ll need a little bit of patience while the pensions get transferred.

He said: “It only took around two or three weeks for Penny to find my ‘lost’ pots, but did take a little bit longer to get them moved across.

“Having to send something in the post to enable one of the transfers slowed things up a bit.”

MANAGING PENSIONS

Since bringing all his pots together, Ben has begun checking in on his retirement savings much more regularly.

“One of the things I love about Penny is the fact you can not only see how much you’ve got in your consolidated pot on the ‘dashboard,’ but also how much it has gone up,” said Ben. “It’s really helpful to see how my money is being invested, and how it’s growing.”

Penny charges a 0.75% fee for managing your pension but you won’t face any additional fees unless you choose to put your money in an ‘ethical fund.’ If you do, the charge is 0.78%.

As of November this year, Ben’s pension pot had reached almost £24,500.

“Before bringing all my retirement savings together in one place I had little idea how much I had,” said Ben. “Prior to this, money just went out of my account each month, but I didn’t really take much notice.”

While Ben now has the peace of mind of knowing he has a healthy pension pot building, he has no intention of retiring early.

“I really like working,” he said. “I’m in no rush to stop, and think I will probably still be in employment until my late 60s. But it’s really reassuring to know I’ve got a healthy fund mounting up for the time when my career does come to an end.”

According to research by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, the average level of annual income required for a single person to live a ‘comfortable’ retirement is £43,100.

For Ben, tracking down his lost pensions has added a lot of security.

“This windfall will certainly help boost my quality of life when I stop working,” he said. “Hopefully it will mean I can enjoy a comfortable and worry-free retirement.”

Happily, Ben feels he’s now got a much better grip on his finances more generally.

“My focus is on ensuring a secure future both for me and for my family,” he said.

“Even though I don’t have any investments as yet, I have a property which is hopefully going up in value. I also have a decent pension building for the longer term. There’s a great sense of relief in finally being so much more on top of all this.”

You can download Penny through your phone’s app store.

MILLIONS OF MISSING PENSIONS

It might sound hard to believe, but Ben is just one of millions of savers estimated to have lost track of old retirement savings.

In a recent report, the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) estimates that as many as 3.29 million pots worth £31.1 billion remain unclaimed in the UK, containing an average sum of £9,470. This is up from £26.6 billion previously.

• How to find lost cash

Aside from Penny, there are a number of ways you can find forgotten pension pots.

A good starting point is the Government’s free-to-use Pension Tracing Service.

Pension firm AJ Bell also has a service to track down missing old pensions, with the option to combine them into one pot.

Elsewhere, Moneyfarm offers a free ‘Find, check & transfer’ service and Standard Life has a free tracing tool, powered by pension-finding platform, Raindrop.

Most providers don’t charge for their tracing service, if you end up opting to consolidate, you will face charges for managing your pension.

• Should you consolidate your pensions?

Before opting to combine all your pensions into one pot, it’s important to work out whether this is the right move for you.

You need to check, for example, whether there are any exit fees, or whether you would be foregoing any benefits by consolidating, such as guaranteed annuity rates.

On the upside, if you do decide to collate all your savings, you will only pay one set of fees – and have one set of paperwork to deal with.

It can also make it a lot easier to keep track of your money – and to see how your pension is performing.

• What about the government pension dashboard?

The Government is pushing ahead with its plans for the much-delayed ‘pensions dashboard’ scheme.

The aim is to allow savers to view all their pension information – including their state pension – in one place.

Last month, pensions minister Emma Reynolds repeated the Government’s commitment to developing the dashboards. This should make it easier for savers to locate – and combine – old pots.

Pension schemes will need to be connected by the end of October 2026.