The Pension Tracing Service will be tripling its number of staff, to help people trace pension pots they have lost track of, in order to cope with record numbers of enquiries.
The service is free to members of the public and helps them to locate former pension providers whose details they may have lost because they have changed jobs.
145,000 people contacted The Pension Tracing Service during 2014, twice as many as in 2010.
The National Association of Pension Funds estimates that there may be as many as 50 million dormant and lost pension pots by 2050.
Steve Webb, minister for pensions, said that whilst the government intends to help people to combine their pension pots if they change employers, there are still too many lost pensions.
The operational manager of the Pension Tracing Service, Jill Scott, said that being able to recover missing pension funds will put them in a much better position when they make the transition into retirement. She added that it is surprisingly easy to lose track of previous pension funds and that people today change jobs much more frequently than they used to.
From April of this year, people will be able to use the government’s new ‘pension wise’ service. This will offer guidance to everyone over the age of 55, explaining to them how they can make the most of the new pension regulations that also come into force in April.
Following George Osborne’s announcement regarding new freedoms, allowing workers to access their pensions, it is estimated that 300,000 people a year will be able to get to their defined contribution pension savings when they wish to, rather than having to take out an annuity.
Concerns have already been raised that the government’s advice service will not be able to cope with demand when the new regulations come into force in April.
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