A couple of weeks ago we wrote a story titled “There is over £25 billion in unclaimed pensions in the UK, is any of that yours?” It seems the lost pension pots is a problem that continues to grow and since then a new study by Pension Policy Institute, a research group, has revealed that the UK’s lost pension pots have grown by almost a fifth in the last two years to over £31 billion, up from £26.6 billion in 2022. That’s an incredible “surge” in lost pensions over the past two years, especially if you take into consideration the fact that the government has set up a number of “drives” to help curb this problem. That £31 billion in unclaimed assets is spread across 3.3 million accounts, up from 2.8 million in 2022. Additionally, the new study reveals the total number of lost pots has more than doubled since 2018.
In another study conducted by The Centre for Economics and Business Research on behalf of PensionBee, surveys revealed one in five adults in the UK feel like they’ve lost a pension pot, equating to almost 9 million people. The study also states that as the total number of pension pots continues to increase, so will the lost pots. Auto enrolment seems to be a key contributing factor to this growing problem, to quote the Pension Policy Institute report, “The creation of new lost pots will largely be a result of people being enrolled in a pension scheme automatically.” This is probably because people are a lot more likely to forget about things they didn’t actually have to enroll for, sort of like those recurring credit card payments we forget to cancel after the 30 day “free” trial.
Now if you happen to live and work in the UK and are among the 9 million who think the government is sitting on their money, there are a few things you can do. The first step would be to log on to pensionattention.co.uk and use the pension tracing tools there that have been provided by the government to help people find their lost pots. Second would be to ensure your contact details are always updated and to provide employers with a secondary contact number of a family member in case you decide to change your number at some point. It’s also good to hold on to paperwork from previous jobs, even if they’re relatively short stints that you’d rather not show on your resume. Lastly, pension pot consolidation is the practice of taking all your pensions from your past employers and putting them in one account, making it easier to keep track of.
When can you opt for QROPS?
You can opt for QROPS if you have a pension fund in the UK which you wish to transfer to India, under the condition that the Indian pension fund you choose to transfer to, is registered as QROPS with HMRC.
How do I know if I’m eligible to apply for QROPS?
The following pension schemes are eligible for QROPS transfer:
- Occupational scheme
- Final salary scheme
- Defined benefit scheme
- Defined contribution scheme
- Self-invested personal pension scheme
- Small self-administered scheme
What documents are required for QROPS transfer?
The forms that are required are Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) forms which include:
- Transfer Quotation
- Transfer out discharge forms
- Lifetime allowance form
- APSS 263
- Any other form as per fund manager requirement