Millions of people do not know how to locate their lost pensions

More than four in five workers don’t know where all their pension funds are, reports pension search company Raindrop.

This comes after it was recently revealed that there is an estimated £31.1 billion in missing pension funds, according to the Pension Policy Institute.

Locating their missing retirement savings could be a much-needed boost for the 19 percent of workers who worry they won’t have enough money to retire, Raindrop says.

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) says a single person needs £43,100 a year for a comfortable retirement, while a moderate retirement – ​​which includes replacing a car every seven years and every fortnight abroad – costs £31,300 a year.

In terms of your total pot, that means it should be £490,000 for a moderate retirement and £790,000 for a comfortable one. That assumes you want to convert your pension to an annuity for a guaranteed annual income.

The rising cost of retirement will force many to work longer and seven million say they will have to delay their retirement plans due to funding shortages.

Vivan Shridharani, co-founder of Raindrop, says: ‘Millions of savers have lost their pension funds, putting their retirements at risk.

“Locating all previous pension funds should be the first step savers should take to increase their retirement income and maximize the value of the funds they have already accumulated.”

To find a missing pension, first list all the places you worked and find out which pension providers they used.

You can do this by contacting your previous employers or reviewing previous documentation.

Then contact the pension provider so they can locate your pension. You will need your national insurance number, previous names and addresses (if they have changed) and details of when you worked for the company.

You can find contact details for pension schemes via the Government website, Pensions Tracking Service. See gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details.

Always keep your details up to date because moving house or changing your name (and failing to inform pension providers) are the most common ways people lose control of their funds.