I won big when I found £50k in lost savings – I’m one of millions who almost missed out
EVENTS director Jay Tyson felt like he had “won big” when he discovered he had five pension pots worth over £50,000 in total.
The 54-year-old, who runs his own events company, is already starting to plan for retirement and figured he must have some old pensions knocking around that he had forgotten about.
He dug out his old pension files from old jobs two years ago in the hope of tracking down his pensions, but the six-inch high pile of paperwork left him pulling his hair out.
So, the Manchester resident went online to look up how to trace missing pots and stumbled across an app which does the job for you – and it helped him recover pots worth £50k.
Jay is one of millions of savers estimated to have lost track of old pension pots worth thousands of pounds.
Research earlier this year by provider PensionBee found one in 10 workers – equivalent to more than three million people – believe they’ve lost a pot worth £10,000 or more.
Around £50billion worth of savings is estimated to be “missing” in total.
Jay did a lot of contract work in his earlier career and so knew he must have pensions stashed away, but he had no idea how much they were now worth.
As he reached his 50s and started to think about retirement, he decided it was time to try and track them down.
“I guess it was just an age thing – pensions are something you always put off, but then a couple of years ago I realised I should start looking at it,” he said.
“I had always had work or personal pensions, so I thought it was about time I found out where they were and how much I had so I could plan properly for retirement.”
How Jay tracked down his old pots
Jay started rifling through his old pension paperwork in 2022, but found he couldn’t get answers to any of his questions.
For example, he couldn’t even find where his pensions were as some of his pension provider’s had changed names.
He also knew he had a combination of private and workplace pensions, but didn’t even know how many pension pots he had in total and couldn’t find a way to figure it out.
That was when he searched for help online and came across the Penny app.
Penny is a tracing service which helps tracks down old pensions – you only have to provide details on where you worked, and when.
Jay entered all his details and realised he had five pots that had been lost, rather than the two or so he was expecting – and he was stunned to find they were worth tens of thousands of pounds.
What is pensions auto-enrolment?
HERE's what you need to know about pensions auto-enrolment:
What is pension auto-enrolment?
Since October 2012, employers have had to enrol their staff into workplace pension schemes as part of a government initiative to get people to save more for retirement.
When does auto-enrolment apply?
You will be automatically enrolled into your work’s pension scheme if you meet the following criteria:
- You aren’t already in a qualifying workplace scheme.
- You are aged at least 22.
- You are below state pension age.
- You earn more than £10,000 a year
- You work in the UK.
How much do I contribute?
There are minimum contributions that you and your employer must pay.
Your minimum contribution applies to anything you earn over £6,240 up to a limit of £50,270 in the current tax year. This includes overtime and bonus payments.
A minimum of 8% must be paid into the pension, with you contributing 5% and your employer paying at least 3%.
What if I have more than one job?
For people with more than one job, each job is treated separately for automatic enrolment purposes.
Each of your employers will check whether you’re eligible to join their pension scheme. If you are, then you’ll be automatically enrolled in that employer’s workplace pension scheme.
Can I opt out?
You can choose to opt out, but you’ll miss out on the contributions from the government and from your employer. If you do choose to opt out you can opt back in later.
“The simplicity in using the [Penny] app was great, all I had to do was add in where I had worked and when I had worked there,” he said.
“They found pensions I wouldn’t have even thought about looking for.”
He discovered the five pension pots were worth £36k, £7k, £4k, £3k and £400, or over £51,000 combined.
But it was the three Jay didn’t realise existed that was the biggest boost.
“It was great, it was like ‘winning big’ really,” he said.
Two or three were with the same company but different pensions.
“There were others that were employee contribution ones, but (it felt like) bonus money I never would have found or known to look for.”
An employee contribution pension is where the worker has money deducted out of their salary and added to a pension pot, with the employer topping it up tax-free.
The process of entering in his personal details and receiving information back from Penny was quick too.
“It was a few weeks before the pension (details) started dripping in,” Jay said.
“But the app would also update you saying it was looking into things.”
Jay doesn’t plan to retire just yet, with coronavirus taking a toll on his business.
But he said it was “nice” to know how much his old pension pots are worth so he can start the process of planning for later life.
How does Penny work?
Penny tracks down your pension pots after you provide it with your NI number and any details you have about your old jobs such as the name of your employer, the dates you worked and the name of your pension provider, if you have it.
It automatically combines them into one new pot, which you can view via a dashboard on the app.
The app charges a 0.75% fee for managing your pension, but doesn’t charge any extra fees unless you choose to put your money in an “ethical fund”, in which case the charge is 0.78%.
If you decide to go down the route of tracking your old pensions and combining them into a new pot, make sure to ask whether you would be giving up any benefits by doing so.
Some pensions come with valuable benefits attached, such as a guaranteed income or a protected pension age of 55.
Other ways to track down your pensions
There are other services you can use to track down a lost pension, including the Government’s online Pension Tracing Service.
The service is free to use, but only tells you the contact details of your pension provider and doesn’t let you combine and manage pots like Penny.
Pension firm AJ Bell also has a service to locate old pensions and lets you combine them into one pot like Penny.
It takes around four to six weeks to find your pensions.
It is free to use AJ Bell’s pension tracing service, but it will charge you to manage your single pot – depending on what pension you take up, you are charged an up to 0.6% fee.
You could also try ringing your old employers’ HR department to ask for the details of your old pensions.
Provide information like the dates you were employed, as well as your National Insurance number.
Once you have found your old pensions, it may be worth consolidating them into one place so you can keep track of them more easily in future.
Putting all your money into one modern pension scheme could also mean you pay less in fees.
But check with your scheme you won’t lose any valuable benefits by transferring first.
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