More than three million UK pension pots remain lost, holding an estimated £18.7bn in assets, with the average lost pot worth £6,220, according to research from the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI).

The PPI’s 2026 Lost Pensions survey, supported by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), found that 81.88% of lost pots belonged to people aged under 55, representing around 2.5m pots worth £12.9bn.

The report said this demonstrates the effect of rules limiting those under the age of 55 from accessing their pension savings, as well as patterns of employment, automatic enrolment, and higher job mobility among younger workers

Although only around 8,000 lost pots were linked to people aged over 75 (0.26% of the total), this represented 13% of all pots associated with that age group, suggesting pension savings left unclaimed after retirement may be more likely to have become genuinely disconnected from their owners.

Women’s lost pension wealth was also more than 20% lower on average than men’s, with mean pot values of £5,370 and £6,830 respectively.

For the first time, the research examined defined benefit (DB) pensions, finding preliminary evidence of lost entitlements across different scheme types. However, the PPI said further data was needed to establish their overall scale and value reliably.

Dr Suzy Morrissey, deputy director of the PPI, said: “As the PPI’s new figures show, lost pension pots remain a significant issue for savers, providers, and policymakers. At a time when pensions policy decision-making could particularly impact tomorrow’s retirement adequacy challenges, the PPI is proud to provide an updated examination of this multi-billion pound policy issue potentially affecting millions of individuals.”

Commenting on the findings, Vivan Shridharani, co-founder and CCO at Raindrop, said: “The UK is facing a future retirement crisis – not only are we not saving enough for retirement, Brits have also lost track of billions of pounds in lost pots and assets.

"There’s currently £550bn sat in “dormant assets” in the UK – savers must ensure they track down these assets in order to boost their retirement funds. However, this is often a hugely challenging process with savers facing a fruitless and time-consuming search requiring lots of complexity. They need support from their banks and pension providers to be reunited with their assets - many pension providers offer simple tools to support customers to trace and consolidate lost pots and assets.”

The findings come ahead of National Pensions Tracing Day on 25 October.

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