The £19.4 billion of unclaimed pension pots is the equivalent of nearly £13,000 per pension pot. 

Insurers are trying to reunite people with their lost pensions, life insurance and investments. This is usually done by sending a letter to their new address.

The research was used to produce guidance for insurance and pension providers that aims to help identify, track down, verify and reconnect people with lost savings through improving reconnection communications.

Typically, people move house 8 times in their life. As part of the study, people were asked about their ‘to-do’ lists when they move – things they would do automatically and things they would do when prompted.

The government predicts that there could be as many as 50 million dormant and lost pensions by 2050. In 2017 more than 375,000 attempts were made to contact customers, leading to £1bn in assets being reunited with them.

Dr Yvonne Braun, director of policy, long-term savings and protection at the ABI, said: “During the lockdown many of us have been focussing on those jobs that never get done, so now is the perfect opportunity to check all your financial information is up to date with the correct address. It is simple to do. All you need is to check the address on your last annual statement or log in to your provider’s website.

“Don’t worry if you don’t have this information, we have a guide on our website to help track your insurance and pension policies and some tips on responding to tracing letters, along with our members’ contact details.

“Long-term savings providers will continue to work hard to reunite people with their lost money. People deserve all the cash they are entitled to. To ensure more people than ever are reconnected we will continue to work with Government to explore ways data can be used to verify customer addresses.”