Employers have been urged to play their part in helping workers track down their lost or forgotten pension pots, ahead of the fourth annual National Pension Tracing Day (NPTD).

According to research carried out for the campaign, an estimated one in 20 people may be affected to the tune of £9,500 each, with a collective £27bn in pension pots waiting to be claimed.

The non-profit initiative, which was originally founded by Punter Southall but is now being led by Secondsight, therefore asks everyone to spend the extra hour when the clocks go back for winter on 27 October to start the search with the tracing tools available on our updated website.

Acknowledging that employees typically turn to their employer when it comes to pension questions, the campaign has released new resources to help make it easier for HR teams to help their people find any lost pension pots.

NPTD also updated the resources companies can share with their staff to encourage them to not only search but to do so with confidence.

Commenting on the campaign's return, Secondsight managing director, employee benefits consulting, Gavin Zaprzala-Banks said: “Sadly, forgotten pensions are nothing new – providers have always spent considerable time and money to reconnect people with the savings they’ve left behind.

“So we created NPTD to go a step further by highlighting what everyone can do to crack this stubborn problem. In particular, we provide the tools to employers to empower their people to turn detective and track down any pensions gathering dust.

“Over the years, we’re delighted at the number of organisations who have helped their employees make sense of this challenge.

"More people switch jobs more often and move home more frequently. We want to make sure they take everything they’ve saved with them.”

He also suggested that the success of auto-enrolment could mean that, conversely, many more people are unaware they even have a pension to claim in the first place.

The campaign also receives support from Aegon, Aviva, Legal & General Investment Management, Hargreaves Lansdown, Royal London, Scottish Widows, Smart Pension, Standard Life, and The People's Pension.

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