The surprising link between toast, Everest and lost pensions​

It's 8am on a Sunday and I’ve been up and about for some time, hanging out with my young daughter, smiling as I watch her alternate between demolishing a piece of toast with jam and piecing together a jigsaw celebrating the magic of Disney princesses (other inspirational figures are available…) ​

As she navigates the jigsaw, she is fixated on the image on the lid of the box, searching through the scattered pieces for one that matches the picture. In true helpful dad style, I hide the box, leading her to waving her jam covered toast around in protest. ​

Laughing, I put it back, but the experience does trigger a reflection. Life is often easier if you have all the information to help you move forward.​

It’s a bit of a jump from toast and jam to pensions, but I think the metaphor is a helpful one. ​

As an industry we talk at length about the importance of engagement, of the opportunity to consider how pensions support aspirations in later life, and at Scottish Widows we absolutely encourage our members to consider their options and take actions to try to improve their retirement outcomes. ​

Having the right information is a huge enabler. Our experience in this market tells us one of the biggest challenges our members face is locating their historic pensions. ​

The chance of finding a pension policy number from 20 years ago can be slim, and that in turn is a barrier to understanding options to maximise its outcome. ​

The issue is a big one. The Pension Policy Institute1 estimates that around 3.3m of pension pots are currently “lost.” ​

That is a staggering average of £9,470 per pot¹, which could make a huge difference to someone who has likely worked very hard to achieve that. ​

Data, or lack of it, is a significant contributor. That is why I am personally delighted that Scottish Widows are partnering with The Pensions Lab to help our members trace their pensions. ​

The service is simple, free to use, and available in our app. All it needs is a couple of simple items of information and it will use that to do the hard work in finding any lost pensions. ​

Once found, it plays these back with incredibly helpful guidance on what the options are whether that’s considering consolidation or just having the comfort of knowing exactly how much they’ve got in their pensions and what they might want to think about next. ​

I am proud that Scottish Widows already provides a range of tools and support designed to help members understand their options. Ultimately, this tool should help even more members access them and provide a simple and effective way to support them to get to their best outcomes.​

And as I watch my little girl smile and point at the kitchen for more toast and jam, I reckon that help has got to be more than worthwhile.​
 

The 18 Everests of missing pensions​

It’s hard for any of us to imagine £31.1 billion – writes Eleanor Hassall-Marlow. It’s approximately £446 for every person in the UK², or 1.5 billion £20 notes. If they were stacked in a single pile, they would be 18 times the height of Mount Everest. ​

According to the Pensions Policy Institute1, that is how much is lying in unclaimed, inactive or lost pensions. ​

The multi-job millennials​

That is why pension tracing is so important, especially for those who have had multiple jobs in their career. People in the UK have an average of 6 roles in their lifetime – with this increasing for Millennials to up to 12³. Younger people typically move roles more often, with research showing 30% of those aged 18-34 have already had three or more jobs and multiple pension pots, which puts this population at real risk of losing track. ​

Between name and address changes, working abroad, company mergers – it’s easy to see how pensions get lost.​

Research from Raindrop reported that only 17% of this age group know exactly where all their pension pots are⁴. And as our recent Retirement Report⁵ shows, almost half of savers age 22-29 aren’t even on track for a minimum retirement lifestyle.​

So, writing as a young person who is passionate about getting her peers invested (pun intended) in their retirement planning, how can we help people find their part of these missing Everests?​

How do we support our pension members?​

We have supported industry-wide campaigns such as Pension Engagement Season as we know that finding this amount of money could make a difference. We also recognise younger people’s engagement in pensions is often lower, and have created tools, gamification and educational content to boost this.​

Now, ahead of the Pension Dashboard launch next year, we are helping our pension members find their lost pots. Through our app, they’ll be able to trace lost pension pots from this summer, view personalised next steps and take actions. They can choose whether to consolidate their pensions into one plan if that’s right for them and they’re not giving up any special guarantees, or connect all their pensions to give them a single view. It takes minutes, is easy, and entirely digital (yes, us young people need everything digitally). ​

What does this mean for young people? 

We get it, pensions are not ‘sexy’ for young people.​

But we, like everyone, can’t afford not to engage with their pension.​

The average value of UK lost pension pots is £9,4701. If someone said you could find thousands of pounds and make a real difference towards your retirement with just a few clicks, wouldn’t we all? ​

Let’s find those 18 Everests of missing pensions.  ​

Sources:

¹ Pensions Policy Institute research (2024)​

² UK Parliament, GDP: Economic Indicators (2026) ​

³ Moneynet (2017)​

⁴ Employee Benefits & Raindrop (2025)​

⁵ Scottish Widows Retirement Report (2024) ​