ABI publishes lost pension pot statistics

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) published figures in October 2024 showing there are 3.3 million lost pension pots in the UK, each worth an average of £9,470¹. The numbers are cited by the insurer Scottish Widows on its retirement pages, which attribute them to the ABI and date them to October 2024¹.

A lost pot is a pension that has been separated from its owner, typically after a change of job or address. The ABI's estimate covers the whole of the UK and is given as a single national figure; no breakdown by nation, age group or scheme type appears in the material citing it¹.

The government operates a free tracing service for people trying to reconnect with a scheme. Scottish Widows links to the gov.uk find pension contact details service as the route to start a search¹. Its pages also point to Money Helper's Pension Wise service, described as free, impartial and backed by the government, for explaining the options for taking money from a defined contribution pension, including drawdown, annuities, taking a cash lump sum or leaving the pot where it is¹.

The same pages warn that pension scams are on the rise and often begin with an unexpected call, text or email, with online and social media increasingly used to target people¹. They also carry the standard warning that the retirement benefits from a pension plan depend on factors including the value of the plan when benefits are taken, which is not guaranteed and can go down as well as up².

Why it matters for households

A lost pot is money that has already been saved but is not currently visible to its owner. At an average of £9,470, a single misplaced pot is a meaningful sum relative to the retirement living standards used elsewhere in the pensions industry, where a minimum standard of living is put at £13,400 a year for a single-person household and £21,600 for a two-person household³. Those thresholds come from a separate body of research and are not part of the ABI figures.

The practical effect is that someone who has changed jobs several times may hold pension entitlements they cannot currently locate, and the tracing service exists to reconnect people with schemes. The ABI figures do not say how many people the 3.3 million pots belong to, so the number of individuals affected has not been reported.

The scam warning is relevant to the same group: a pot that has been out of sight for years is one a fraudster may claim to be able to unlock or transfer. The cited pages describe the typical approach as an unexpected call, text or email¹.

What happens next

No further publication date for ABI lost pot statistics is given in the material citing the October 2024 figures¹. The tracing service and the Pension Wise guidance route are both available now¹.