Pension hunting is the process of tracking down a person’s lost pension from a previous employer. In some cases, this can be a simple matter of contacting the pension provider and requesting a statement. However, in other cases, it may require more work, such as searching through old records or contacting former employers.
Why are pensions lost?
There are several reasons why pensions are lost. In some cases, people simply forget about them or fail to keep track of their investments. In other cases, they may change jobs frequently and fail to transfer their pension to their new employer. Whatever the reason, lost pensions represent a significant problem for both individuals and society as a whole.
According to a recent survey, pension hunting is on the rise, with an increasing number of people searching for lost or unclaimed pension benefits. The survey found that pensioners are now twice as likely to search for a lost pension than they were a decade ago. While the majority of those who do pension hunting are successful in finding their lost benefits, the average pensioner spends over £200 on search fees alone.
Pension hunting statistics show that there are an estimated 50,000 lost pensions in the UK. This means that there are approximately 1,200 pensioners who are losing out on boosting their pension savings every year. However, the good news is that pension hunting services have recovered over £3 million in lost pension pots since 2016. This means that more and more people are getting their pensions back, but there is still a long way to go. The average recovered pension pot is worth £6,000, but some have been worth as much as £50,000. Encourage your employees to investigate whether they have unclaimed pension savings.
Despite the associated costs, pension hunting can be extremely rewarding. In fact, the average pensioner who recovers a lost pension receives over £15,000 in benefits. And while this may seem like a lot of money, it’s important to remember that pensions are intended to provide financial security in retirement. For many pensioners, recovered benefits can make a significant difference in their standard of living. Last year, pension hunters recovered £1.3 billion in lost pension assets. This money will now be used to provide a better retirement for those who have lost track of their pension fund.
Pension hunting tools available on the market
The government’s pension tracing service can be a helpful tool for people who have lost track of their pensions. However, the service is not without its limitations. One of the biggest problems is that it may require a large amount of information for people to find their lost pensions. This can be particularly problematic for older people who may have forgotten some of the details about their pensions. In contrast, Mintago’s pension hunter only requires a small amount of information to be added to allow the hunt to begin. Employees can choose to add additional information if they have it, but this is not compulsory.
Additionally, the government’s pension tracing service is only available to people who live in the United Kingdom. This means that it is not an option for people who have worked in the UK and have now moved overseas and therefore may not have easy access to government records.
There are other pension hunting services available from providers in the pension space. One service offers free pension tracing, allowing your employers to enter details such as their email address and phone number, then providing an initial consultation with a financial adviser to discuss their needs. Within this consultation, a financial adviser will trace and assess your employee’s pensions and make recommendations on how they can make the most of their pension pots and plan for their retirement.
Another free available service from a well-known pension provider allows employees to find and combine their lost pensions. Employees can use the provider’s financial app to manage their recovered pensions which are combined into their single pension with this provider. Employees gain access to this service through their employer. The service requires the names of employees’ previous employers, with the name of previous pension providers discovered in the same search result. If employees choose to submit a transfer request, experts will contact their previous providers and take care of the paperwork.
The difference between Mintago’s pension hunter technology and others available
There are a few key differences that set Mintago’s pension hunting tool apart from others available. Firstly, our tool is designed to help you track down lost or forgotten pensions from previous employers with minimal hassle. This can be a real challenge if you’ve had a number of jobs over the years and don’t have good records of your pension contributions. There are currently over £20 billion in unclaimed pensions in the UK, and research shows that the average employee has about 11 different employers throughout their lifetime.
Mintago’s tool makes it much easier to locate your lost pensions and get them back on track. Another key difference is the level of support and guidance that Mintago offers. We don’t just hand you a tool and leave you to it. Our team is on hand to help you every step of the way, from understanding how the tool works to tracking down your pension pots and managing them afterwards. Mintago’s pension hunters are experts and focus entirely on recovering your lost pensions to fully optimise your overall retirement fund. The tool is free to use for those with access to the Mintago platform through their employer and is available alongside the wealth of benefits Mintago offers to employees, including the financial app and the pension dashboard.
Mintago’s pension hunter tool can help you find lost pots of money and get them added to your Mintago pension dashboard. This is a valuable service, as it not only helps you keep track of all your pension pots in one place, but also provides you with real-time updates on the value of your portfolio. Through the dashboard, you can manage your pension pots, combining them into one if you wish. This can assist you in gaining a more thorough understanding of your financial situation, and help you to best prepare for your ideal retirement lifestyle.
Another key difference is that Mintago offers a much more comprehensive service than the government pension tracing service. The government pension tracing service simply tells you if you have a pension from a previous employer – it doesn’t give you any information about the value of the pension pot and does not recover lost pots. You then have to do all of the hard work yourself, contacting the provider or previous employer to try and recover the lost pension yourself. Mintago’s pension hunter removes the hassle, so you can get your lost pensions added to your Mintago pension dashboard with minimal fuss.
So, if you’re looking to support your employees with a comprehensive pension hunting solution, Mintago is the clear choice. Our pension hunter tool will help them find lost pensions and get them added to their Mintago pension dashboard, so your employees can keep track of their entire portfolio in one place.