There is a quick, simple and free process to find out if you have money waiting
Martin Lewis giving financial advice in his TikTok clip
Martin Lewis says there is more than £30billion of pension money lost across the UK, with the average forgotten pot worth just under £10,000 – and in some cases, far more. In a clip shared on his official TikTok from the Martin Lewis Money Show Pensions Special on ITVX, the MoneySavingExpert founder warned that losing track of a pension is surprisingly easy.
A house move, a marriage, a job change, or even your pension provider being renamed – any of these can leave money forgotten. The good news is that finding what is yours costs nothing and takes only a few minutes. And as Martin put it, “it is worth a check.”
Martin said that one person had found £45,000 in a lost pension. “I have to tell you, we were impressed in the studio when that number came up, £45,000, weren’t you? There was a bit of a whoo-whoo went on in here, and it is really worth it,” he said.
He then shared a striking statistic: “There’s over £30 billion, £30,000 million pounds of pensions are thought to be lost, an average of just under £10,000 each.”
The main reasons people lose track? “You didn’t update your contact details, you might have changed house, you might have changed name if you got married, for example. You also might have changed jobs and forgotten it – it’s so common – or your pension provider might have merged or been renamed.”
Martin outlined a simple, free process to find lost pensions. Start with old paperwork: “Dig out your old paperwork and try contacting your old employers first.”
If that fails, go to the Pension Tracing Service on gov.uk. “It contains 200,000 pension schemes. Really good, especially if you’d look at your old pension scheme, it doesn’t exist anymore. Who’s taken on its assets? Where’s it gone? They’ll be able to find that for you. You get the details, you contact the pension firm to get reconnected. You will, of course, need ID.”
For those still stuck or who cannot remember details, Martin recommended Gretel.co.uk. “It will go onto your credit files, do a soft search, that means it doesn’t affect your credit score, in common parlance, and will match your old address to any lost assets like bank accounts, shares and pensions.”
He explained Gretel is free because it is funded by financial firms. “Basically, most big financial firms are given a duty to try and reconnect people with their lost assets. So instead of doing it themselves, they subcontract to Gretel to do it for them, which is why it’s free. Once you’re signed up, it will recheck every 14 days.”
AI SEO analysed Google and found an over 230% surge in searches for ‘find lost pension’. Martin specifically directed his advice at those in their 40s, 50s and 60s who have worked at lots of different firms.
