Over a quarter (28 per cent) of people have three or more pension pots, Hargreaves Lansdown has found.

The Opinium survey, which was conducted on behalf of Hargreaves Lansdown in April 2022 and included 1,000 respondents, also found that younger people were more likely to have multiple pensions, as 35 per cent of under-35s had three or more pensions compared to 23 per cent of those aged between 55-64.

Hargreaves Lansdown warned that having multiple pension pots could derail plans in retirement, as it is easier to lose track of pensions and people may therefore not have a full idea of how much income they could receive in retirement.

Hargreaves Lansdown senior pensions and retirement analyst, Helen Morrisey, commented: “Losing track of pensions is easily done but risks derailing your retirement planning.

“A combination of job hopping and moving home means there’s a high likelihood you could lose sight of a pension plan – you may forget to update your contact details, or the company could change its name and before you know it you could be missing out on thousands of pounds of pension income that could have a real impact on your retirement lifestyle.

“The average person is expected to have 11 different jobs in their career and with auto-enrolment in play you could get a pension in every one of them. Our research shows over a third of under-35s already have three or more pensions.

“By the time they have retired they will likely have accumulated several more – it is vital to keep on top of how many pensions you have and where they are.

“It’s a problem DWP has already said could result in up to 50 million lost pensions by 2050 with these people potentially missing out on thousands of pounds of hard saved pension savings that could really boost their income in retirement.”

Morrisey backed the effectiveness of pension dashboards in helping people keep track of their pensions, although she did recognise that it would take some time before the members of the public are able to access them.

Morrisey also advised that savers could decide to consolidate their pensions into one or two plans to make it easier to keep track of their retirement savings, as going down that route can save people a lot of ongoing paperwork and give a better idea of whether they are on track to hit their retirement goals.


This article first appeared on our sister title, Pensions Age.

Share Story: